xxxvi Proceedings, §c. 



the narrow path of civilisation. The actual life of some of our fellow- 

 beings gives us a living panorama of what all over the globe, as 

 far as we may reasonably conjecture, once was the condition of man 

 in his primitive position. The truth of this we recognise in certain 

 districts of the globe, as seen in the northern and southern extremities, 

 where we find the Laplanders and the Esquimaux, the Patagonian 

 and the Fuegian. From what we know of these tribes, the two first 

 possess the use of fire, but some of the latter are still ignorant of 

 the benefits of artificial heat, and consequently have to partake of 

 food as nature offers it. Such human beings occupy, therefore, the 

 lowest grade. These are not numerous, and are rapidly dwindling 

 away ; a circumstance apparently natural, considering the localities 

 they occupy. There are other parts of the globe which offer similar 

 views of a low and stationary life, in which certain aboriginal families 

 still remain ; while others, again, at no great distance from the former, 

 are found more advanced in civilisation. This fact we observe in the 

 original occupiers of Australia and New Zealand, both of which are 

 familiar with the use of fire, though the former have remained without 

 any further improvements, being considerably below the latter in social 

 condition. Directing our attention to the aboriginals of South America, 

 who had reached the highest degree of civilisation among the tribes 

 occupying that part of our globe, and considering the state of intel- 

 lectual culture of the Mexicans and Peruvians — next to these, observ- 

 ing the Indian tribes of the interior of that country, or the regions of 

 the Andes ; thence passing to the southern parts of the continent, where 

 a certain portion of the Patagonians and Fuegians still exist in their 

 original state— the contrast is so great that we may wonder at the 

 causes which led to such marked difference in the material improve- 

 ments of these our fellow-creatures, though inhabiting adjoining por- 

 tions of the same continent. 



Assuming that the human family, all over the world, has 

 apparently had to struggle from the same state of ignorance, slowly to 

 discover how to commence and how to continue the path towards ma- 

 terial and mental improvement, it certainly is worthy of attention to 

 ascertain, from existing facts, what has caused the advance of some 

 and the stagnation of others ; or what have been the means by 

 which man in the wilderness was enabled to commence the import- 

 ant task of material and intellectual culture ; and further, what were 

 the means required to support and realise a greater perfection of civi- 

 lisation 1 Here the subject for observation is the material improve- 

 ment, the development and perfection of our nobler intellectual 

 faculties, in a higher degree of civilisation, being the result of the 

 moral culture. 



This question is of importance for our own history, and may, per- 

 haps, not have been so minutely attended to as it deserves; I, there- 

 fore, now offer the result of my investigations, with the intention of 

 presenting a view of the ways and means by which the material 



