66 THE LESSON OF EVOLUTION 



animals. 3. Civilised, who use alphabetic writing 

 for conveying information. Other ethnologists have 

 used the terms Stone, Bronze, and Iron ages to ex- 

 press the same thing ; and these distinctions are use- 

 ful, although they cannot always be strictly applied. 



The Stone age appears to have been universal at 

 first, for implements of palaeolithic type have been 

 found in North and South Africa, in Syria, and in 

 India, as well as in Europe and North America. 

 The Melanesians, Polynesians, and the nomad 

 tribes of America are still in the Stone age. The 

 inhabitants of Central America, from Mexico to 

 Peru, had attained to the Copper age when dis- 

 covered by the Spaniards, while all Africa, Asia, and 

 Europe passed long ago into the Iron age, without 

 any intermediate Bronze age in Africa. Pictorial 

 writing was as widespread as stone weapons, and it 

 lasted to modern times in Australia, Polynesia, 

 Africa, and North America. The Chinese have 

 never advanced beyond hieroglyphic writing, in 

 which each syllable has a separate symbol ; and this 

 kind of writing was still in existence in Central 

 America and in Easter Island a few centuries ago. 

 Civilisation originated with the Egyptians, and was 

 carried on by the Semites of Western Asia. But it 

 is the Aryans of Europe who are now spreading it 

 over the world. 



It thus appears that while some of the nations have 

 progressed, other have remained almost stationary, 

 and some may have retrograded. The stationary 

 nations present us, as it were, with pictures of 

 former stages in the history of the progressive 



