All the Articles of the Darwin Faith. 39 



level beyond many parts of Europe? That the New 

 Zealander was capable of civilization is proved by the 

 result ; if it be a natural acquisition, why did he never 

 acquire it before we found him out ? On the other hand, 

 if he received the gift from the Briton, as the Briton from 

 the Roman, the Roman from the Greek, and the Greek 

 from the Egyptian, we are conducted back to an original 

 civilization from which the separated fragments fell, and to 

 which they return again when the long lost connection is 

 restored, as water remounts to its level when the inter- 

 vening mass is pierced without. Against this invariable 

 testimony of history the most that is offered is that all 

 existing nations were originally barbarous ; but to infer 

 from this that all ancient races were barbarous also, is again 

 to beg the question. Our contention is that they were not, 

 and we have some evidence in our favour in the remains of 

 ancient Egypt and Assyria; to assume without evidence 

 that these were in turn preceded by an anknown period of 

 barbarism, requires us to admit the very point to be 

 proved. If civilization (we repeat) did spring sponta- 

 neously out of barbarism at the first, why has it never 

 done so since ? To this question there is no reply. But if 

 the original savagery is still an improbable conjecture, 



