178 MR STARK ON THE SUPPOSED PROGRESS OF HUMAN SOCIETY 



OVID follows HESIOD in his division of the Ages, but makes them in number 

 only four ;* and HORACE, in a well known passage, records the general ideas pre- 

 valent as to man's degraded origin. f 



Such were the opinions of the ancients as to the early state of human society, 

 opinions which have influenced the details of almost all subsequent writers. 



Dr FABER, it may be remarked, considers that the mythology of the ancients 

 recognises two golden ages ; the first coinciding with the Creation, the second co- 

 inciding with the period which immediately succeeded the Deluge. The modern 

 theories, founded on these statements, are such as I shall now shortly notice. 



" In temperate climates," says Lord KAMES, " the original food of man was 

 fruits that grow without culture, and the flesh of land animals procured by 

 hunting. A fawn, a kid, or a lamb, taken alive, and tamed for amusement, sug- 

 gested probably flocks and herds, and introduced the shepherd state." " Neces- 

 sity, the mother of invention, suggested agriculture. When corn, growing spon- 

 taneously, was rendered scarce by consumption, it was an obvious thought to pro- 

 pagate it by art."t 



Many other writers of celebrity, among whom may be mentioned Principal 

 ROBERTSON, Baron CUVIER, and Sir HUMPHRY DAVY, have adopted this theoretical 

 opinion in regard to the progression of the human race from savage habits to civi- 

 lized life. || " In the earliest ages," says M. VIREY, " human societies were scat- 

 tered over the surface of the globe, living on the fruits of the chase, fishing, and 

 on the wild herbs which a beneficent Nature made grow under their feet. The 

 increase of the numbers of individuals upon a soil which the plough had not yet 

 fertilized, the scarcity of game, the difficulty of subsisting in severe seasons, forced 

 men to rear cattle to feed upon in these necessities, and they became shepherds.- 

 Supported, then, on the milk of their cattle, and clothed with their fleeces, their 

 manners became polished, and their minds accustomed to contemplate nature. 

 But even the resources of the pastoral life, in spite of the dispersion of families 

 and nations to new lands, became too limited for the increase of the human race, 

 and the earth began to be appropriated, and the labour of the ox to be applied to 

 the cultivation of the soil. To this succeeded the settlement of men in cities and 

 towns, the rise of the arts, and the division of employments which characterize 

 civilized life."** 



The author of the " Wealth of Nations," and his latest illustrator Mr M'CuL- 



* Metamorph. lib. i. t Sat. iii. v. 199, &c. 



{ Sketches of the History of Man, i. 46, 47. Consolations in Travel, p. 76. 



|| The traditions of the Chinese, separated as they are, in many respects, from every other people, 

 correspond, according to Dr THOMAS YOUNG, with the classical theory of man's savage original and pro- 

 gressive civilization. Dr YOUNG himself, like most other philosophers, takes the truth of the theory for 

 granted. Supp. Encyclop. Brit. Art. CHINA. 



** Nouv. Diet, de 1'Histoire Naturelle, tome xv. Art. L' HOMME. 



