196 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



than a race of chimpanzees ? For Mr. Buckle s 

 own facts show that the protective spirit has 

 never been so strong as in the early ages of his 

 tory. &quot; In India, slavery, abject, eternal slavery, 

 was the natural state of the great body of the 

 people.&quot; l The &quot; vast social system &quot; of Egypt 

 was &quot; based on despotism &quot; and u upheld by cru 

 elty.&quot; 2 In Mexico and Peru, &quot; there was the 

 same utter absence of anything approaching to 

 the democratic spirit : there was the same des 

 potic power on the part of the upper classes, and 

 the same contemptible subservience on the part 

 of the lower.&quot; 3 Again, in Babylonia, Assyria, 

 and Persia, despotism was the only form of gov 

 ernment ever experienced or thought of. 4 We 

 have evidence of the same in the case of China 

 and Japan. We find, moreover, that in barba 

 rous countries, like Ashantee, despotism univer 

 sally prevails. Going still lower, still farther 

 back, we see nomadic tribes always in subjec 

 tion to the will of the strong man. Now, for 

 many thousands of years, 5 civilization was advanc- 



i Vol. j. p. 73. 2 2bid. p. 83. 



8 Ibid. p. 101. In Peru, according to Mr. Prescott, the people 

 could not even change their dress without a license from their rulers! 



4 The passage in Herodotus, b. iii. c. 80-83, is well known to have 

 BO historical value ; see the remarks of Rawlinson, vol. ii. p. 393. 



6 Bunsen s Egypt, passim. Darwin, Oriyin of Species, p. 23. 



