DEGREES OF THE ORDER SYMBOLIZED. 117 



of man from the state of a savage. First, having neither 

 flocks nor herds, primeval man gains a precarious subsist 

 ence by the chase and slaughter of such wild beasts as h^ 

 may be able to overcome. While living this hand-to-mouth 

 existence to-day overburdened with meat and having no 

 incentive to exertion, anon, driven by extreme want to re 

 sume his toil but slight mental improvement is possible. 

 Rising slowly in intelligence, he gathers flocks and herds, 

 and emerges from his primeval barbarism, and the light of 

 civilization begins to dawn upon him. Still his condition is 

 that of a nomad, and improvable only to a limited extent ; 

 the pastoral life necessitates frequent changes of location as 

 his flocks and herds exhaust the pasture. 



In the course of time he seeks a more settled mode of life. 

 He learns to till the soil in a rude way, and provide stores 

 for the winter; gathers his fellows together into communities, 

 makes laws for the general welfare, and becomes qualified to 

 subdue and replenish the earth. The progress of strug 

 gling humanity, however, is still very slow. The discoveries 

 and inventions of one generation are handed down to the 

 next orally, and, necessarily, imperfectly; the craftsman 

 hands down by word of mouth to his son the secrets of his 

 trade. Thus, for ages, the improvement goes on, certain but 

 slow, till the invention of the art of writing gives a vast 

 impulse to the rate of progress. Thenceforward the advance 

 is at an accelerating rate, and the achievements of man, once 

 on record, relapse into oblivion no more. The higher, God 

 like nature becomes expanded, and man goes on, step by 

 step, forming empires, surmounting difficulties apparently 

 unconquerable but only met to be overcome ; the rate of 

 progress quickening, till, at length, he no longer advances 

 step by step, but by leaps and bounds toward that perfec 

 tion which he was created to attain. 



