ii8 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



But the pace of progress was still very slow. For 

 at least three quarters of a million years man made 

 inconceivably slow advance. For most of the time 

 he must have been stationary. Then the last Ice 

 Age occurred, and we shall see that it drove men 

 into social life. Dates are difficult, but we may put 

 this development of social life, roundly, about fifty 

 thousand years ago — to take the end of the Ice Age 

 and the full term of its influence. Man now reached 

 a level a little above that of the Eskimo. The pace 

 was now much faster. Ten thousand years ago the 

 foundation stones of civilization were laid in Egypt. 

 Five thousand years ago two great civilizations had 

 reached a high development. But there was still 

 something wrong with the machinery of evolution. 

 Man was nominally, but not thoroughl3^ social. 

 There was no social sentiment between groups of 

 men — tribes or nations — and horrible wars wasted 

 their resources and destroyed their lives. Seven 

 himdred years ago Europe was in most respects 

 lower than civilization had been five thousand years 

 before. A few centuries later the advance was 

 resumed. A hundred years ago we had got back to 

 the general level of ancient Rome and Greece. And 

 in the last hundred years, which have been especially 

 marked by the growth of social ideals, we have 

 passed every previous high-water mark of civilization, 

 and have made more progress than was made in any 

 five hundred years in the history of man ! 



