EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



analyzed, an excellent illustration of the intel- 

 lectual and moral advance of mankind from a 

 state of bestial savagery toward a state of refined 

 civilization. Let us consider first, for a mo- 

 ment, the diminution in the atrociousness of 

 the overt acts by which the persecuting spirit 

 has manifested itself; and afterward let us pro- 

 ceed more thoroughly into the consideration of 

 the underlying causes of the temper of mind 

 which has led men to persecute one another. 



In the lowest stages of human progress which 

 the comparative study of institutions has re- 

 vealed to us, there are no great political aggre- 

 gates of men covering large areas of country, 

 supporting themselves by complex and multi- 

 farious kinds of industrial activity, and bound 

 together by varied community of interests, guar- 

 anteed by laws based on the common consent 

 of all. Viewed in relation to what we now know 

 about the antiquity of the human race, a society 

 like this must be regarded as quite a late and 

 elaborate result of the slow process of civiliza- 

 tion. In broad contrast to anything of this sort, 

 we find mankind in their primitive condition 

 such as we may still find it partially exemplified 

 in the institutions of savage races existing only 

 in little tribes, supporting themselves almost en- 

 tirely by predatory occupations quite like those 

 by which bears and tigers support themselves, 

 and perpetually fighting with each other for the 

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