196 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



than a race of chimpanzees? For Mr. Buckle's 

 own facts show that the protective spirit has 

 never been so strong as in the early ages of his- 

 tory. "In India, slavery, abject, eternal slavery, 

 was the natural state of the great body of the 

 people." 1 The "vast social system" of Egypt 

 was " based on despotism " and " upheld by cru- 

 elty." 2 In Mexico and Peru, " there was the 

 same utter absence of anything approaching to 

 the democratic spirit : there was the same des- 

 potic power on the part of the upper classes, and 

 the same contemptible subservience on the part 

 of the lower." 3 Again, in Babylonia, Assyria, 

 and Persia, despotism was the only form of gov- 

 ernment ever experienced or thought of. 4 We 

 have evidence of the same in the case of China 

 and Japan. We find, moreover, that in barba- 

 rous countries, like Ashantee, despotism univer- 

 sally pi'evails. Going still lower, still farther 

 back, we see nomadic tribes always in subjec- 

 tion to the will of the strong man. Now, for 

 many thousands of years, 5 civilization was advanc- 



i Vol. i. p. 73. 2 ibid. p . 83. 



8 Ibid. p. 101. In Peru, according to Mr. Prescott, the people 

 could not even change their dress without a license from their rulers ! 



4 The passage in Herodotus, b. iii. c. 80-83, is well known to have 

 no historical value ; see the remarks of Rawlinson, vol. ii. p. 393. 



6 Bunsen's Egypt, passim. Darwin, Origin of Species, p. 23. 



