and the Natural History of Man. 289 



length to a confirmed nomadic state. In any of these inter- 

 mediate stages of degradation, however, further deterioration 

 may have been prevented, and an impulse may indeed have been 

 given to a progressive state of improvement, by any causes, 

 whether natural or artificial, which would prevent the further 

 disintegration of society, and bring its members into more inti- 

 mate connexion, so as to preserve the means for the mutual im- 

 portation of knowledge. Thus, in maritime countries, where the 

 further progress and dispersion of mankind has been stopped by 

 the ocean ; — in islands ; — in cities, where men have been congre- 

 gated together for the purposes of commerce ; — and even in rich 

 alluvial countries, of which, by means of agricultural knowledge, 

 the products have afforded subsistence to a dense population ; — 

 civilization, so far from remaining stationary, has generally con- 

 tinued to advance : whilst in champaign, barren, and desert 

 countries, on the contrary, where nomadic habits have been in- 

 duced, the people have descended in the scale of civilization in 

 an equal ratio to the quality of the country, and its means of 

 affording subsistence, operating conjointly with its extent, and 

 the consequent absence of the necessity for its inhabitants to 

 adopt any means of support, beyond those which have spon- 

 taneously presented themselves, and which have thence become 

 congenial to them ; such as the pasturing of their flocks in coun- 

 tries sufficiently fertile for that purpose, and the hunting of wild 

 animals, where the physical condition of the country has not 

 been adapted to the support of tame ^nes. 



From this last state, — in which, owing to the loss of the know- 

 ledge of accumulating capital, whether in the form of money or 

 of merchandize, and ultimately even in that of cattle, a large tract 

 of country would become necessary for the support of a much 

 smaller number of persons ; and in which also, from the disin- 

 tegration of society, the traditive knowledge of each successive 

 generation would become less and less, — the progress to the con- 

 dition of the mere savage, or man in the lowest state of cultiva- 

 tion, is easy to be traced. In cold and inhospitable countries, 

 however, where the uncivilized races inhabiting them would be 

 compelled to use every exertion in order to procure a scanty and 

 precarious subsistence, the lowest mechanical arts would still be 

 retained, until the inclemencies and privations to which those 



