428 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



In the light of this discussion some of the excrescences of modern 

 civilization, such as free love and Mormonism, are seen to be relics 

 of the old savagism not yet eradicated from the human brain. The 

 nations of the Aryan family assume not only to be civilized, but to be 

 far advanced in civilization ; whereas this is strictly true of a small 

 minority only. Barbarism and savagism still lurk in all cities, and in 

 all corners of civilized lands, repressed by law and restrained by su- 

 perior intelligence. We have the same identical brain, perpetuated 

 through reproduction, which worked in the skulls of savages and bar- 

 barians in bygone ages ; and it has come down to us ladened and 

 saturated with the thoughts, aspirations, and passions with which it was 

 busied through the intermediate periods. It is the same brain grown 

 older and larger with the experience of the ages. These outcrops of 

 barbarism are so many revelations of its anterior proclivities ; a kind 

 of mental atavism. 



Finally, out of a few germs of thought, planted in the human brain 

 in the primitive ages, have been evolved all the institutions of man- 

 kind. Beginning their growth in the period of savagery, fermenting 

 through the period of barbarism, they have reached their fruition in 

 the period of civilization. The evolution of these germs of thought 

 was guided by a natural logic, which formed an essential attribute of 

 the brain itself. So unerringly does this principle perform its functions 

 in all conditions of experience, and in all periods of time, that its results 

 are uniform, coherent, and traceable in their courses. These results 

 alone will in time yield convincing proofs of the unity of origin of the 

 human family. The mental history of mankind, which is crystallized 

 in civil and domestic institutions, and in inventions and discoveries, is 

 presumptively the history of a single species, perpetuated through 

 individuals, and developed through experience. Among the original 

 germs of thought, as stated at the outset, which have exercised the 

 most powerful influence upon the human mind, and upon human 

 destiny, are those which relate to the family, to government, to lan- 

 guage, to religion, and to -property. They had a definite beginning, 

 a logical progress, but can have no final consummation, because they 

 are still progressing, and must ever progress. 



Andoo ; from eighteen to about thirty he is Howalah, and is allowed to marry ; 

 from thirty to about fifty he is Muidara, and after fifty he is Ngara. Beside this 

 they have the class divisions of the Kamilaroi, and the tribes. This information 

 was communicated to Mr. Fison by Mr. A. S. P. Cameron. 



