UNITY AND CONTINUITY. 329 



in affirming that lawlessness and violence, arising 

 perhaps in the first instance from struggles for fertile 

 portions of land, broke up the original unity of man- 

 kind and produced migrations and the separation of 

 rude and more polished races, which have ever since 

 continued. On the one hand, these movements and 

 contests have been fertile sources of degradation and 

 retrogression. On the other, they have stimulated the 

 energies of men, and have tended to bring to the 

 surface the more vigorous races. 



Here arises an inquiry of the highest importance. 

 How has it happened that the majority of men have 

 continued for ages in a stationary condition ? How, 

 on the other hand, has the higher culture, and 

 especially -that which we call Aryan and Semitic, 

 grown out of the archaic dead level of the old Turanian 

 stock, whether agricultural or merely in the hunter 

 and fisher condition ? On the one hand, we have a 

 picture of stagnation and fixity ; on the other, of 

 marvellous advance. 



It cannot be denied that pre-historic men were, in 

 bodily vigour, in volume of brain, in skill of manipu- 

 lation, on a level with their modern successors ; and 

 even in their ruder tribes they must have had their 

 senses and perceptive powers sharpened to a high 

 degree of perfection by the constant struggle for food, 

 or against enemies and wild animals ; while their 

 implements and ornaments show patient industry and 

 much taste and skill. Thus gifted, we would naturally 

 suppose that primitive man would speedily rise to a 



