whately's argument defective. 137 



His assertion, repeated over and over again, 

 is that mere savages "never did and never 

 could raise themselves, unaided, into a higher 

 condition." Now it may be perfectly true 

 that Man never could " unaided " discover 

 religious truth, or rise to any adequate idea 

 of the nature, or of the demands, of moral 

 obligation ; and yet it may be wholly untrue 

 that he is equally incompetent to discover the 

 physical laws of nature, or to find out by 

 mechanical skill how to adapt them to his 

 own use. Again, Whately admits, that "when 

 men have once reached a certain stage in 

 the advance towards civilization, it is then 

 possible for them (under favourable circum- 

 stances) to advance further and further in the 

 same direction." But there is no attempt to 



