Chap, v.] CIVILIZED NATIONS. 177 



regions, is to take a pitiably low view of human nature. 

 It is apparently a truer and more cheerful view that prog- 

 ress has been much more general than retrogression ; that 

 man has risen, though by slow and interrupted steps, from 

 a lowly condition to the highest standard as yet attained 

 by him in knowledge, morals, and religion. 



