PREHISTORIC SCIENCE 



elaborate political system an embryo science of 

 government. 



Meanwhile, the very existence of such a community 

 implies the recognition on the part of its members of 

 certain individual rights, the recognition of which is 

 essential to communal harmony. The right of indi- 

 vidual ownership of the various articles and imple- 

 ments of every -day life must be recognized, or all har- 

 mony would be at an end. Certain rules of justice 

 primitive laws must, by common consent, give pro- 

 tection to the weakest members of the community. 

 Here are the rudiments of a system of ethics. It may 

 seem anomalous to speak of this primitive morality, 

 this early recognition of the principles of right and 

 wrong, as having any relation to science. Yet, rightly 

 considered, there is no incongruity in such a citation. 

 There cannot well be a doubt that the adoption of 

 those broad principles of right and wrong which under- 

 lie the entire structure of modern civilization was due 

 to scientific induction, in other words, to the belief, 

 based on observation and experience, that the prin- 

 ciples implied were essential to communal progress. 

 He who has scanned the pageant of history knows how 

 often these principles seem to be absent in the inter- 

 course of men and nations. Yet the ideal is always 

 there as a standard by which all deeds are judged. 



It would appear, then, that the entire superstruct- 

 ure of later science had its foundation in the knowledge 

 arid practice of prehistoric man. The civilization of 

 the historical period could not have advanced as it has 

 had there not been countless generations of culture 



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