212 DARWINISM STATED BY DARWIN HIMSELF. 



are no just grounds for the belief that the high culture 

 of the native Peruvians and Mexicans was derived from 

 abroad ; many native plants were there cultivated, and a 

 few native animals domesticated. We should bear in 

 mind that, judging from the small influence of most mis- 

 sionaries, a wandering crew from some semi-civilized land, 

 if washed to the shores of America, would not have pro- 

 duced any marked effect on the natives, unless they had 

 already become somewhat advanced. Looking to a very 

 remote period in the history of the world, we find, to use 

 Sir J. Lubbock's well-known terms, a paleolithic and neo- 

 lithic period ; and no one will pretend that the art of 

 grinding rough flint tools was a borrowed one. In all 

 parts of Europe, as far east as Greece, in Palestine, 

 India, Japan, New Zealand, and Africa, including Egypt, 

 flint tools have been discovered in abundance ; and of 

 their use the existing inhabitants retain no tradition. 

 There is also indirect evidence of their former use by the 

 Chinese and ancient Jews. Hence there can hardly be a 

 doubt that the inhabitants of these countries, which in- 

 clude nearly the whole civilized world, were once in a 

 barbarous condition. To believe that man was aborigi- 

 nally civilized and then suffered utter degradation in so 

 many regions is to take a pitiably low view of human 

 nature. It is apparently a truer and more cheerful view 

 that progress has been much more general than retro- 

 gression ; that man has risen, though by slow and inter- 

 rupted steps, from a lowly condition to the highest stand- 

 ard as yet attained by him in knowledge, morals, and 

 religion. 



