216 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



such concurrence, as already observed, may be the sole cause 

 why China has remained stationary; for even the slight shock 

 lately given to that empire by Great Britain, has already had 

 an effect, disproving the common opinion that the Mongolic 

 mind cannot advance beyond a certain point. No people of 

 the typical stocks could arrive at a progressive social existence, 

 without intermixture of one or more branches of the homoge- 

 neous nations of the bearded and beardless forms ; and through 

 these, such rudiments of advancement as can be traced among 

 the woolly-haired, were likewise engendered. 



While nations pushed each other forward, and contested the 

 possession of desirable territories, sudden extermination of the 

 vanquished people generally lent but trifling aid to intellectual 

 advancement ; there was scarcely a desire to make slaves, 

 where food was often insufficiently abundant for the victors ; 

 but when the great roads of colonization had been trodden by 

 many nations to the verge of oceans, the result was different, 

 because by that time Man had learned to subdue the Horse for 

 his convenience, whereas, until that moment, the Ox alone 

 appears to have been used for the saddle.* This conquest over 

 brute power again commenced in high Asia, perhaps about 

 Samarkand, but more certainly on the great plains north and 

 west of the central table land; and with the aid of this valua- 

 ble acquisition, began the era of invasion for dominion's sake ; 

 at first, in a more cumbrous manner, by charioteering; but, 

 soon after, riders, on the backs of their horses, passing rapidly 

 over immense distances, and almost entirely from east to west, 

 carrying few or no wives or children, obtained both by the 

 sword, and even spared the vanquished male sex, in order to 

 enslave it.t 



both had been repeatedly scenes of martyrdom, until they were stopped by 

 a Pagan, held to be a barbarian, because he was a Goth. 



* This was certainly a practice of Hindoo princes, before the Horse 

 appears, and even long after. It is still in use among the CafTres, 

 who ride their Bakeley Oxen in war ; and by mendicant fakeers in India. 



t Yet there are examples, down to the ninth century, when Christian 



