144 THE DAWN OF MIND. 



in the monotony of their life and the uncouthness ol 

 their Mind represent almost the lowest level of hu- 

 manity.^ 



From these rudiments of mankind let him make his 

 way to the New Hebrides, to Tana, and Santo, and 

 Ambrym, and Aurora. These islands, besides Man, 

 contain only three things, coral, lava, and trees. Un- 

 til but yesterday their peoples had never seen any- 

 thing but coral, lava, and trees. They did not know 

 that there was anything else in the world. One hun- 

 dred years ago Captain Cook discovered these island- 

 ers 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 un- 

 exampled luxuriance, and arranges the year to be one 

 long harvest; she allows no wild animals to prowl 

 among the forest; and surrounding them with the 

 alienating sea she jDreserves them from the attacks of 

 human enemies. Outside the struggle for life, they 

 are out of life itself. Treated as children, they re- 

 main children. To look at them now is to recall the 



^ The situation is dramatic, tliat 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. 



