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2. On the Supposed Progress of Human Society from Savage 

 to Civilized Life, as connected with the Domestication of 

 Animals and the Cultivation of the Cerealia. By John 

 Stark, Esq. 



The object of this paper is to controvert the generally received 

 opinion, derived from the classical writers, and adopted by most 

 philosophers, that human society, in its original state, was one 

 of savage barbarism ; and, that, in the supposed progress from 

 savage to civilized life, three separate stages or gradations have 

 been gone through, the one leading necessarily to the other. 

 These stages, — or the hunter's life, when the food of man was pro- 

 cured by the chase of wild animals, the pastoral state, when flocks 

 and herds formed his chief support, and the agricultural state, 

 when grains were cultivated, — the author shews never had any 

 existence, except in the fancies of poets or the theories of philo- 

 sophers. 



1. In regard to the assumption that man was created a dumb 

 savage, the author states, that such a supposition is neither re- 

 concilable with probability, nor consonant to reason, nor war- 

 ranted by historical records. If he had been originally dumb, 

 his race never could have acquired the power of speech ; if he had 

 been merely a frugivorous animal, his instinctive propensities 

 would never have led him to feed on animals; and if such ani- 

 mals were his destined prey, it could never happen, in the ordinary 

 course of things, that he was to become their protector. If he 

 had been created a savage, a savage he must ever have remained. 



2. With regard to the domestication of animals originally 

 wild, according to the theories of poets, philosophers, and his- 

 torians, who supposed this to have been the result of ages of ex- 

 periment — an assumption which has remained uncontroverted 

 till now — the author shews that the supposition of the domesti- 

 cated races ever having been in a wild state, is not warranted by 

 any thing recorded in sacred or profane history ; that, as far as hu- 

 man history extends, the domesticated animals were man's com- 

 panions ; and that an instinct of sociability, or a particular dis- 

 position to dwell with men, exists in the nature of these animals, 

 without which all attempts to tame them would have been in 

 vain. The animals known as domestic were so from the earliest 

 periods, and no addition to their number has been made through 

 successive ages. 



