MAN'S PRIMITIVE CONDITION 1657 



chanical arts, that he was in a condition of "utter 

 barbarism," if he were at the same time conscious 

 of moral obligations and obedient to them. 



Wherever a brutal or savage custom prevails it is at 

 once assumed to be a sample of the original condition 

 of mankind. And this in the teeth of facts which prove 

 that many of such customs not only may have been, 

 but must have been, the result of corruption. Take 

 cannibalism as one of these. Sir J. Lubbock seems to 

 admit that this loathsome practice was not primeval, 

 probably because he considers it as unnatural. And 

 so it is that is to say, it is against the better nature 

 of man ; but the fact of its existence proves that within 

 the limits of that nature there are elements liable to 

 perversions even so horrible as this. And so we come 

 upon the fact of the two natures of man, and of the 

 power of the worst parts of his nature to overcome 

 the best. It is thus that customs the most cruel and 

 depraved become established. But if this be the 

 explanation, and the only possible explanation, of 

 cannibalism, is it not evident that this may also be 

 the explanation of other customs which are violent 

 and horrible only in a less degree? Cruel rites of 

 worship and savage customs as regards marriage 

 and the relation of the sexes come under the same 

 category. Cannibalism is only an extreme case of a 

 general law, and it is a crucial test of the fallacy of 

 a whole class of arguments commonly assumed by 

 those who support the savage theory respecting the 

 primeval condition of mankind. 



The great difficulty of teaching many savages the 

 arts of civilized life is no proof whatever that the 



