26 AGRICULTURE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



as a better knowledge of the laws of animal and vegetable life 

 will make such readjustment possible. 



Civilization is a relative term. It does not consist in the 

 multiplication or modes of supply of the artificial wants of 

 mankind; it is the development of social order in place of in 

 dividual independence and savage lawlessness. It is the im 

 provement of the mass through the perfection of its units. 

 This is a common sense view of the subject, and common sense, 

 as Mr. Guizot says, &quot;is the genius of mankind.&quot; 



Civilization, therefore, determined by the character of the 

 units of the social order, is susceptible of continual progress, 

 and the highest perfection. But it is dependent upon physical 

 agents, chiefly upon climate and soil, which determine the most 

 important conditions of human welfare. 



The first step of progress is the accumulation of wealth, which 

 in all regions of the earth is created by labor. The moment man 

 produces more than he consumes, the law of distribution comes 

 into play and we see a movement toward an organization of in 

 dustry. It does not depend upon race. The same Mongolian 

 and Tartar tribes which, wandering over the steppes and barren 

 lands of Central Asia, never emerge from the rudest condition of 

 pastoral life, because they never accumulate ; have risen to the 

 highest civilization whenever they have broken through the 

 mountain ranges and descended into more fertile regions. 

 The wild Arab, whom we know best as the Bedouin of the des 

 ert, transplanted to Persia or Spain, left noble architectures 

 behind him, and made valuable contributions to literature and 

 science. 



Even the Indian races of the new world, wherever nature 

 permitted the accumulation of the wealth derived from a genial 

 climate and fertile soil, have left, as in Mexico and in Peru, 

 splendid monuments of their advancement in the arts of life. 

 Everywhere the basis is the same ; it was rice and wheat culture 

 on one continent, maize on the other. 



How many ages were consumed in impressing the stamp of 

 utility upon the products of wild nature it is impossible to tell. 

 Some of the most useful food plants are found in a wild state. 

 Wheat in upper Egypt and the hill country of India; rice of 

 excellent quality, though not identical in species, abounds in 

 the North American lakes. 



But the wild wheat is a thin and comparatively miserable 



