PT. m. Progress and Civilisation. 117 



and Australia, are alone admitted to the rank of 

 civilised nations; the Asiatic Eaces, partly extending 

 over the North of Africa, are semi-barbarous, or 

 half-civilised, and the rest of the World is regarded 

 as more or less in a savage state. These popular 

 ideas seem of a superficial character. They do not 

 answer the questions : What is Civilisation ? What 

 is Progress ? When and where did it commence ? 

 What are its causes, its laws, its duration, and its 

 limits ? No subject of human inquiry can be more 

 extensive, more important, more profound, or better 

 worthy of Philosophical Analysis. 



What is Civilisation? When, and where did it 

 originate ? These are questions which the popular 

 and current acceptation does not satisfy. Civilisation 

 is used in a comparative sense. We are civilised in 

 relation to some other States, which are half-civilised, 

 or not civilised at all. We are civilised now, in 

 contrast with some former period, when we were 

 ourselves uncivilised, and out of which we have 

 emerged. What date shall we assign to that epoch ? 

 Shall it be the revival of learning, and the birth of 

 Science at the close of the Middle Ages ? Shall it be 

 the Christian era? Shall it be the foundation of 

 the Koman Empire, or the Babylonian Monarchy ? 



