CIVILIZED NATIONS. 165 



countries, which include nearly the whole civilized world, 

 were once in a barbarous condition. To believe that man 

 was aboriginally civilized and then suffered utter degrada- 

 tion in so many regions is to take a pitiably low view of 

 human nature. It is apparently a truer and more cheerful 

 view that progress has been much more general than retro- 

 gression; that man has risen, though by slow and inter- 

 rupted steps, from a lowly condition to the highest standard 

 as yet attained by him in knowledge, morals and religion. 



