INGENUITY AND LUXURY 



INTRODUCTION 



CIVILIZATION is a synonym for artificiality. 

 Man is not naturally adapted to live in any 

 climate but a tropical one, and when he wil- 

 fully invades the inhospitable temperate zone, he 

 creates artificial needs that require artificial aids for 

 their fulfilment. It is tolerably obvious how this ap- 

 plies to food supplies how the tropics supplied fruit 

 to our primitive ancestor free for the taking, and how 

 in the north he was obliged to become a fisher, a hunter, 

 a grazer, and an agriculturist in short a perpetual 

 toiler forced to fight incessantly for the necessities of 

 life. 



What is true of the food supply is even more tan- 

 gibly true as regards man's fight with the elements. 

 In tropical forests clothing is almost a superfluity, and 

 even the crudest house is a luxury rather than a 

 necessity. But for the inhabitants of temperate 

 and arctic zones it becomes imperative to conserve 

 the bodily heat by incasing the body in an artificial 

 covering, and by supplying an artificial environment, 

 which is best secured by the building of houses. The 

 prime object of these artifices is to prevent too rapid 



VOL. IX. I [ I ] 



