May II, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



221 



it implies tliat men can perceive meanings in conventional signs, 

 and that arithmetic has been invented. 



[The change from barbarism into civilization was next described.] 

 -In barbarism there are tools, but no machinery; metallurgical process- 

 es are )'et undiscovered ; the use and reduction of iron are unknown. 

 The employment of the latter led to an important advance in naval 

 architecture; to the accumulation of wealth in the products of the 

 soil, in woven fabrics, in iron and copper and silver and gold ; and 

 these together to the establishment of a system of exchanges 

 through fleets and caravans; and thus commerce was developed. 



In barbarism the people lived largely in towns, each town being 

 an independent body politic. But when commerce was developed, 

 towns grew into cities, and with increasing wealth there was in- 

 creasing temptation to predatory forays ; and at the same time the 

 •discovery of bronze and copper had given the barbaric warriors 

 superior arms. Then it became necessary to defend the cities with 

 their wealth and teeming population, and they were walled. At 

 this stage the people have learned to burn brick and to cut stone, 

 and a vast improvement in architecture is the result. They have 

 also become skilful in the manufacture and decoration of pottery ; 

 there are forges in the cities, and glass-manufactories flourish. 

 Water-mills are set up, great irrigating ditches are built, and mines 

 are opened. 



It is not proposed to set forth the great industrial achievements 

 ■of modern civilization by which the powers of nature have been dis- 

 covered and utilized by mankind : it is simply intended to explain 

 the first form of civilization, that it may be distinguished from an- 

 terior barbarism. 



[Major Powell next treated of the change in institutions which 

 marked the transition from barbarism to civilization.] 



In setting forth the evolution of barbarism into civilization it be- 

 comes necessary to confine the exposition to eastern Europe, west- 

 ern Asia, and northern Africa, and to a large extent to one great 

 stock of people, — the Aryan race, — together with those other 

 stocks — as the Egyptian, the Semitic, and the Turanian races — 

 whose history is involved in that of the Aryan, and with whom they 

 were inextricably mixed, and whose ultimate destiny was controlled 

 by the progress of Aryan culture. On the other hand, some Aryan 

 people are not included, from the fact that they severed themselves 

 from the body of the people and entered upon an independent his- 

 tory. The centre of this world was the Mediterranean Sea ; and from 

 its shores, far away in every direction, the peoples were scattered 

 whose history was involved in one vast interdependent system, for 

 the culture of every one re-acted upon the culture of every other 

 one. Throughout all the region above indicated, tribal towns and 

 nomadic villages existed. Gradually the most prosperous towns 

 became centres of power and population. Less powerful tribes 

 became subject to and dependent upon more powerful tribes, and 

 gradually many tribal towns became city States, and these city 

 States were transitional bodies politic between barbarism and 

 civilization. 



[The organization of a city State was then described, and the 

 origin of ranks shown. The organization of city States into nations 

 was then traced out, the nations being essentially tax-gathering 

 bodies, with no attempt to re-organize the society of such nations 

 so as to secure general homogeneity and interdependence of parts, 

 and that unification which gives solidarity. This came later. The 

 •evolution of kingship, the contest between the throne and the 

 Council or Parliament, the origin of courts, the development of civ- 

 ilized law, and the establishment of the authority of the superior 

 in rank, were next explained. Thus it was shown that the institu- 

 tional change from barbarism to civilization was a change first in 

 the- constitution of the State itself, a change in the form of govern- 

 ment, a change in the principles of law. InUke manner the change 

 in language, the change in opinion, and the change in mentations 

 was traced. Under the last head Major Powell spoke as follows.] 



The most important acquisition to intellectual activity gained by 

 man is the power of inductive reasoning beyond the penetration of 

 the senses, and beyond sensuous conceptions, and into a realm in 

 which conclusions are reached which are apparently contradicted 

 by the senses and by experience. 



[The following are the closing paragraphs of the lecture.] 



I have thus endeavored to indicate the course of culture and 



characterize its three great stages by following a few lines of its 

 evolution, and I will recapitulate in part, and add other particulars ! 

 but that the statement may be laconic, all qualifications and pro- 

 visos must be neglected. 



The age of savagery is the age of stone ; the age of barba- 

 rism, the age of clay ; the age of civilization, the age of iron. The 

 savage propels his canoe with a paddle ; the barbarian propels his 

 boat with oars ; the civilized man navigates the sea with ships pro- 

 pelled by sails. In savagery, music is only rhythm ; in barbarism 

 it is rhythm and melody; in civilization it is rhythm, melody, and 

 harmony. The age of savagery is the age of kinship clan, when 

 maternal kinship is held most sacred ; the age of barbarism is the 

 age of kinship tribes, when paternal kinship is held most sacred ; 

 the age of civilization is the age of nations, when territorial boun- 

 daries are held most sacred. In savagery, law is designed to 

 secure peace ; in barbarism, to secure peace and authority ; in 

 civilization, to secure peace, authority, and justice. In savagery, 

 law extends only to kindred ; in barbarism, to kindred and retain- 

 ers ; in civilization, to all people of the nation. The age of sav- 

 agery is the age of sentence-words ; the age of barbarism, the age 

 of phrase-words ; the age of civilization, the age of idea-words. In 

 savagery, picture-writings are used ; in barbarism, hieroglyphics ; 

 in civilization, alphabets. In savagery there is no verb ' to be ; ' 

 in barbarism there is no verb ' to read ; ' in civilization, verbs are 

 resolved into parts of speech. In savagery, beast-polytheism pre- 

 vails ; in barbarism, nature-polytheism ; in civilization, monotheism. 

 In savagery a wolf is an oracular god ; in barbarism it is a howling 

 beast ; in civilization it is a connecting link in systematic zoology. 

 In savagery the powers of nature are feared as evil demons ; in bar- 

 barism the powers of nature are worshipped as gods ; in civilization 

 the powers of nature are apprenticed servants. In savagery, men 

 can only count ; in barbarism they have arithmetic ; in civilization 

 they understand geometry. In savagery, vision is limited by opin- 

 ion ; in barbarism, vision is limited by horizon ; in civilization, vis- 

 ion is limited by the powers of the telescope and microscope. In 

 savagery, reason is based on zoomorphic analogies ; in barbarism, 

 on anthropomorphic analogies ; in civilization, on intrinsic homol- 

 ogies. The great intellectual achievement of savagery was the dis- 

 covery of the difference between the animate and the inanimate, 

 between the organic and inorganic, between the Uving world and 

 the dead world, but, the discovery having been made, the animals 

 were deified and believed to be the authors and movers of the 

 world of phenomena ; the greatest intellectual achievement of bar- 

 barism was the discovery of the limited powers of animals, but, 

 the discovery having been made, the powers and wonders of na- 

 ture were deified and given the forms of man ; the greatest intel- 

 lectual achievement of civihzation was the discovery of the physical 

 explanation of the powers and wonders of the universe, and the 

 intellectual superiority of man, by which he becomes the master of 

 those powers, and the worker of wonders. In savagery the beasts 

 are gods ; in barbarism the gods are men ; in civilization, men are 

 as gods, knowing good from evil. 



The story of human culture is a story of transformations : arts 

 have transformed, institutions have transformed, language has been 

 transformed, opinions have been transformed, and reason has been 

 transformed. There are many strange transfigurations in nature. It 

 is a wonder that the blows of the hammer are transmuted into 

 heat ; it is a wonder that the motions of the ether can be trans- 

 muted into the rainbow ; it is a wonder that the egg can be transmut- 

 ed into the eagle ; it is a wonder that the babe can be transmuted 

 into the sage ; it is a wonder that an objective blow may be 

 transmuted into subjective pain ; it is a wonder that the printed 

 page may be transmuted into visions of the beautiful : but the 

 wonder of wonders is the transfiguration of selfishness into love. 

 Amatory passion transfigured appears as love ; parental care, as 

 parental love ; infantile dependence, as filial love ; fraternal sym- 

 pathy, as fraternal love. Thus love of kindred was born ; and the 

 love of kindred, by the expansion of the kinship body into the 

 tribe and nation, grew to love of country and love of mankind. 

 The last transfiguration in the process of evolution appears as the 

 ethics of mankind. 



Man, so far as he is superior to the beast, is the master of his 

 own destiny, and not the creature of the environment. He adapts 



