THE DA WN OF MIND 183 



uncouthness of their Mind represent almost the 

 lowest level of humanity.^ 



From these rudiments of mankind let him make 

 his way to the New Hebrides, to Tanna, and Santo, 

 and Ambrym, and Aurora. These islands, besides 

 Man, contain only three things, coral, lava, and trees. 

 Until but yesterday their peoples had never seen 

 anything but coral, lava, and trees. They did not 

 know that there was anything else in the world. 

 One hundred years ago Captain Cook discovered 

 these islanders and gave them a few nails. They 

 planted them in the ground that they might grow 

 into bigger nails. It is true that in other lands a 

 very rich life and a very wide world could be made 

 out of no more varied materials than coral, lava, 

 and trees ; but on these Tropical Islands Nature is 

 disastrously kind. All that her children need is 

 provided for them ready-made. Her sun shines on 

 them so that they are never either cold or hot ; she 

 provides crops for them in unexampled luxuriance, 

 and arranges the year to be one long harvest ; she 

 allows no wild animals to prowl among the forests ; 



^ The situation is dramatic, that from end to end of the region 

 occupied by these tribes, there stretches the Telegraph connect- 

 ing Australia with Europe. But what is at once dramatic and 

 pathetic is that the natives know it only in its material relations 

 — as so much wire, the first metal they have ever seen, to cut 

 into lengths for spear-heads. 



