PERFECTIBILITY OF MAN. 185 



fully sufficient to convince my own mind of a futurity 

 to man on earth more exalted than his present condi- 

 tion here. Inequalities, vast and various, there must 

 ever be, from the necessities of human existence, but 

 the grade of the species may be raised. Admission 

 being made of the capacity for change, and this with- 

 out any known limit of amount, the argument recurs 

 for illustration to the comparison of what is with what 

 has been, and the inference from this as to the possible 

 or probable future. It is a subject fitter for a volume 

 than a loose essay. I will merely remark here, that 

 had there been any prior type of civilisation higher 

 than that of Greece and Borne, it must inevitably have 

 left its marks behind. We may take this grade of 

 mental culture, then, though deficient in some arts and 

 inventions which even China and India had attained, as 

 the highest of the ancient world. But, however re- 

 markable in many ways, it had not vigour enough 

 to perpetuate itself, when brought into conflict with 

 abuses from within and barbarian pressure from with- 

 out. A long series of dark centuries intervened be- 

 tween this era and that of modern civilisation, during 

 which period Christianity itself, in its creeds, acts, and 

 usages, was degraded to a level little above that of the 

 feudal barbarism co-existing with it. 



Such degradation as that of the Dark Ages in 

 Europe can never occur again. The present areas of 

 high civilisation, though still limited in extent, and de- 

 faced by many dark shades, are not exposed to the 

 dangers just denoted. They cannot again be overrun 

 by ruder races from without; and any internal changes, 



