FROM SAVAGE TO CIVILIZED LIFE. 



LOCH, Mr MALTHUS, Mr SADLER, and every other writer on the progress of society, 

 adopt the same theory ; and even Mr ALISON, in his work on Population, published 

 within these few months (1840), argues as if these were fixed and marked periods 

 in the progressive civilization of man. In fact, though founded in fable, or the 

 dreams of ancient poets, and though such a gradation has never yet been pointed 

 out as existing by those who take its existence for granted, yet such is the influ- 

 ence of classical associations on the spread of knowledge, that, till lately, this se- 

 ries of advancing links in the scale of human improvement has never been chal- 

 lenged. 



In drawing up a few popular lectures for a local scientific association, my 

 attention was first called to the improbability of such a series of progressive 

 changes ; and the result of my inquiries was, that such a progress is not supported 

 by the evidence of recorded observation, and is opposed to the statements of the 

 oldest written records of the human race. 



On further investigating the subject, I found that the theory of human so- 

 ciety, in its earliest stage, being originally savage, had been called in question by 

 several writers. Soon after the publication of Lord KAMES'S Sketches of the History 

 of Man, the doctrine which his Lordship maintained, in common with many others, 

 as to man's savage original, was animadverted on in a Letter addressed to him by 

 Dr DAVID Doio of Stirling, which, with a second Letter on the same subject, which 

 personal communication rendered unnecessary to be transmitted, was afterwards 

 published in 1792. Dr DOIG supports the propositions, that the more populous 

 and extensive kingdoms and societies were civilized at a period prior to the records 

 of history ; that degenerated races or savage tribes can never recover then* pris- 

 tine condition without foreign aid ; that there seems to be in human nature an 

 innate propensity to degeneracy ; and that if all mankind had been once in the 

 savage state, they not only never could have arrived at any considerable degree 

 of civilization, but would have sunk lower and lower, till degraded to the level 

 of the beasts that perish.* 



The next writer I have met with who questions man's savage original, is Mr 

 JOHN BIED SUMNEE, in a work entitled " A Treatise on the Records of Creation," 

 which was published in 1816 in two volumes 8vo. " The barbarous state of the 

 inhabitants of countries newly discovered," says he, " then* general ignorance of 

 arts and deficiency of morals, has naturally introduced a vague idea that man was 

 originally, at his birth or creation, a savage. But according to the Mosaic account, 



* For the knowledge and perusal of this scarce and, I believe, little known book, I am indebted to the 

 kindness of JOHN GORDON, Esq. of Cairnbulg. The first Letter is dated 20th December 1774, the second 

 March 12. 1775 ; but they were not published till 1792. The title of the volume is, " Two Letters on 

 the Savage State, addressed to the late Lord KAIMS." The advertisement, detailing the author's pur- 

 pose in writing and afterwards publishing them, is written by the Rev. Mr GLEIG, afterwards a bishop of 

 the Scottish Episcopal Church. 



