Natural Hijiory of the Ancients. 87 



as well as their proud fupremacy were thus 

 flattered. In depreciating their forerunners, they 

 exalted themfelves. The procefs by which thefe 

 Indian and Oriental fables patted into Europe, 

 and what in fome cafes is ftill more important, 

 the Buddhift origin of thefe Oriental fables them- 

 felves, has been pointed out by the late Theodor 

 Benfey. It is curious that the ideas of claffic 

 poets, on the degeneracy of the human race, are 

 being every day contradicted by the difcoveries of 

 fcience. Not leaft among thefe corrections of 

 popular beliefs is the evidence for the gradual 

 amelioration of mankind to which the legends and 

 hiftory of fo-called Pygmy tribes teftify. They 

 corroborate the teftimony of revelation and the in- 

 fight of modern poets, more true in this particular 

 than their brethren in the paft, that there is a 

 golden future for the race, an " increafing purpofe 

 running through the ages." Material progrefs, in 

 jfhort, means in moil cafes the moral and mental 

 advancement of man. Civilization is a light 

 whofe radiance is ever piercing further and further 

 into the realms of darkness : 



" Wait ; my faith is large in Time, 

 And that which fhapes it to fome perfeft end.'* 



As for any other theory, " a pygmy's ftraw doth 

 pierce it" ("King Lear," iv. 6). 



