4 G. G. Hubbard—Geographic Progress of Civilization. 
ilies formed the clan, and as the clan grew came the tribe, the 
association of clans. 
The earliest civilizations of which we have any knowledge are 
those of Egypt, Babylon, and China, and though the monu- 
ments of those civilizations are from 5,000 to 6,000 years old, and 
perhaps much older, they show that centuries of civilization 
must have antedated their erection; for the Sphinx and the 
Pyramid of Cheops, the earliest monuments of Egypt, have 
never been surpassed. The manners and customs of the Egyp- 
tians and Chinese were almost. identical, though their architec- 
ture was of entirely different type, depending on the material 
convenient for use—in Egypt, stone; in China, bamboo and wood. 
The syllabic symbols of the Chinese are the counterparts of the 
hieroglyphic writings of Egypt. The civilization of other na- 
tions, save perhaps that of the Indians of this continent, was 
derived from and dependent in a greater or less degree on that 
of Babylon and Egypt. 
China. 
At some early period Mongolian tribes must have passed the 
Pamir, descended the plateau of Tibet into the rich valleys of 
eastern China, dispossessed the aborigines of their lands, and 
extirpated, absorbed or forced them into inaccessible fastnesses. 
The physical geography of China influenced and tended to form 
the character of its inhabitants. On the north are the deserts of 
Mongolia and Gobi, beyond these Siberia, until recently even 
more desolate than the Mongolian desert ; on the east the ocean ; 
on the south China sea and the Himalaya mountains ; on the 
south and west the highest and most extensive plateau in the 
world, Tibet, and behind, it a long chain of mountains crossed 
only by passes from 14,000 to 20,000 feet in altitude. These well- 
nigh impassable barriers cut off the Chinese from communication 
with the world, and for ages they remained entirely unknown to 
Europeans, whom they regarded as outside barbarians. 
The great rivers of China have afforded an unsurpassed system 
of inter-communication, and to this the empire owes the homo- 
geneous character of its population, and largely also its long- 
continued political unity. The Chinese very early passed from 
the nomadic to the agricultural state, and for a long period must 
haye made great progress in art and science ; but in some remote 
