CONCLUSION. 323 



perfection of mind and body, favoured by the physical 

 and biological conditions of climate. In this race, 

 whether with respect to myth and science or to civili- 

 zation, the theory of evolution has practically been 

 carried out in all its phases and degrees. 



Science and freedom were the great factors of 

 civilization, or of progress in every kind of concep- 

 tions, sentiments, and social conditions : the first 

 dissolved and destroyed the matrix of myth in which 

 the intelligence was at first enveloped, and liberty, 

 which was wholly due to science, made steady pro- 

 gress a matter of certainty. So that it may be said 

 that the whole web of human history, so far as it 

 consists in civilization or the progress of all good 

 things, of the arts, and of every intellectual and ma- 

 terial achievement, was the conflict of science, and her 

 offspring freedom, against ignorance, and the despotism 

 which results from ignorance, under all the social forms 

 in which they are manifested. So that all good and 

 wise men, sincere lovers of the dignity of mankind 

 and of the welfare of society and of the individual, 

 ought to feel a deep reverence and love for these two 

 powers, and to be ready to give up their lives to 

 them. For if which in the present condition of the 

 world is an impossible hypothesis they were to fail, 

 the human race would be irretrievably lost, since 

 these are our real liberators from barbarism, which 

 have upheld mankind in the struggle against it, 

 under whatever name these principles have appeared. 



