Oha*. V Nations. 145 



amongst savages in various parts of the world, it cannot be 

 doubted that these have nearly all been independent discoveries, 

 excepting perhaps the art of making fire. 36 The Australian 

 boomerang is a good instance of one such independent discovery. 

 The Tahitians when first visited had advanced in many respects 

 beyond the inhabitants of most of the other Polynesian islands. 

 There are no just grounds for the belief that the high culture of 

 the native Peruvians and Mexicans was derived from abroad ; 37 

 many native plants were there cultivated, and a few native 

 animals domesticated. We should bear in mind that, judging 

 from the small influence of most missionaries, a wandering crew 

 from some semi-civilised land, if washed to the shores of 

 America, would not have produced any marked effect on the 

 natives, unless they had already become somewhat advanced. 

 Looking to a very remote period in the history of the world, we 

 find, to use Sir J. Lubbock's well-known terms, a paleolithic and 

 neolithic period ; and no one will pretend that the art of 

 grinding rough flint tools was a borrowed one. In all parts of 

 Europe, as far east as Greece, in Palestine, India, Japan, New 

 Zealand, and Africa, including Egypt, flint tools have been 

 discovered in abundance; and of their use the existing in- 

 habitants retain no tradition. There is also indirect evidence of 

 their former use by the Chinese and ancient Jews. Hence there 

 can hardly be a doubt that the inhabitants of these countries, 

 which include nearly the whole civilised world, were once 

 in a barbarous condition. To believe that man was abori- 

 ginally civilised and then suffered utter degradation in so many 

 regions, is to take a pitiably low view of human nature. It is 

 apparently a truer and more cheerful view that progress has 

 been much more general than retrogression ; that man has risen, 

 though by slow and interrupted steps, from a lowly condition to 

 the highest standard as yet attained by him in knowledge, 

 morals and religion. 



'iD J 



36 Sir J. Lubbock, 'Prehistoric edit., 187<>. 



Times,' 2nd edit. 1860, chap. xv. 37 Dr. F. Miiller has made some 



and xvi. et passim. See also the good remarks to this effect in the 



excellent 9th chapter in Tylor's ' Reise der No vara : Anthropolcg, 



Early History of Mankind,' 2n<l Theil,' Abtheil. iii. 1808, s. 127. 



