30 GEOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF CIVILIZATION 



environment exercised a controlling influence on life, character, insti- 

 tutions, and religion; it was the primary if not the sole cause of de- 

 velopment in the transition of man from savagery through barbarism to 

 civilization. The same cause continued to influence the successive stages 

 of civilization, though as man advanced in knowledge and intelligence 

 he became more and more independent of his surroundings. Even now 

 . they influence him in various ways. 



The first lecture will be of a general character, showing prehistoric 

 man, the beginnings of industries (such as agriculture and the domestica- 

 tion of animals), of institutions and religion, and of the acquisition of 

 real and personal pi-operty, and will be delivered by the President of the 

 Society. 



We look for the earliest civilization where the environment was most 

 favorable, as in Babylonia and Egypt, and j)Ossibly in China. The tran- 

 sition of man from barbarism to partial civilization in these countries 

 probably originated at about the same time, and therefore the second 

 lecture will be on Babylonia, where the environment is in some respects 

 more marked than in Egypt or China. In the rich valleys of the Tigris 

 and Euphrates men were first gathered into great cities under the rule of 

 a despot who was above all humanity, the representative only of him- 

 self and of God. Here the family seems to have become obsolete, all rights 

 undefined, personal and civil liberty unknown, for there were only two 

 classes, the master and slave. Yet here we find the first great library, 

 hanging gardens, and magnificent architecture. 



This lecture will tell us of the development of the city, library, and 

 architecture, and of the rule of the despot, and will be delivered by Mr 

 Talcott Williams, of the Philadelphia Press, a gentleman born in Mesopo- 

 tamia and well acquainted with the country and its inhabitants. 



The third lecture will be on Syria. In Syria we have an entirely dif- 

 ferent geographic eavironment, developing diflferent institutions and 

 religious beliefs, with a nationality and history of a different type. The 

 Semites, probably Bedouins, came from the desert of Arabia, a country 

 as unlike the valley of the Euphrates as the people of the two countries 

 are unlike each other. In these deserts originated the ideas of humanity 

 and charity, and a religion tending to monotheism. The chiefs or rulers 

 of the nomad clans were patriarchs, like Abraham and Jacob, wandering 

 over the desert. Although their civilization was in some respects and 

 for a long time inferior to that of the Babylonians, yet they had a love of 

 freedom and manly character unknown in the despotisms of the Eu- 

 phrates and Nile. While they estimated the value of the life of the indi- 

 vidual higher than did the Assyrian, yet even here personal liberty, as we 

 understand it, did not exist, as every man belonged to a familj' group and 

 was subject to its head, and every family to its clan. 



This lecture will trace the development of the family, monotheism, and 

 the Jewish nation, and will be delivered by Prof. Thomas J. Shahan, 

 LL. D., of the Catholic University of America. 



The fourth lecture will be on Tyre and Sidon, cities which derived their 

 civilization from Assyria. Here we find a third condition of environ- 

 ment—mountains behind, the sea in front— evolving a higher civilization. 



