20 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



gree of civilization of which we are so proud, and this leads me to 

 make an observation. 



Too often, under the influence of our actual superiority, we disdain 

 the people who are behind, whether in the pastoral state or in the state 

 of hunters. We proclaim them incapable of reaching our level. 



This opinion is nowhere justified. Forget not that we have passed 

 by the same halting-places. Forget not, above all, that many civili- 

 zations have preceded our own. Two thousand years before our era 

 the Chinese raised monuments that still excite the admiration of trav- 

 elers, cultivated the mulberry, raised the silk-worm, and possessed 

 notions of astronomy. Egyptian civilization is still more ancient. 

 You saw proof of this at the Universal Exposition. In the temple 

 raised under the direction of N. Mariette you must have admired, 

 among other things, that magnificent statue of Chefren placed at the 

 bottom of the hall, and which dates 4,000 years before our era. At 

 this time we were true savages, covered with the skins of beasts, and 

 carrying on our persons, under the pretext of embellishing ourselves, 

 paints and tattooing like those of the most backward races of our own 

 day. The effect of this should be, on the one hand, to awaken our 

 modesty, and on the other to render us indulgent to people who are 

 yet at the point which we have escaped. 



Fig. 3. 



IV. Industries. — It is in the midst of primitive societies that indus- 

 tries are born and flourish. However low a people may be, it always has 

 its own proper industries, Man is essentially an industrious being. 



