140 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



that I need here give only the briefest summary of their results. 

 The arguments recently advanced by the Duke of ArgylP' and 

 formerly by Archbishop Whately, in favor of the belief that man 

 came into the world as a civilized being, and that all savages 

 have since undergone degradation, seem to me weak in com- 

 parison with those advanced on the other side. Many nations, no 

 doubt, have fallen away in civilization, and some may have lapsed 

 into utter barbarism, though on this latter head I have met with 

 no evidence. The Fuegians were probably compelled by other 

 conquering hordes to settle in their inhospitable country, and they 

 may have become in consequence somewhat more degraded ; but it 

 would be difficult to prove that they have fallen much below the 

 Botocudos, who inhabit the finest parts of Brazil. 



The evidence that all civilized nations are the descendants of 

 barbarians, consists, on the one side, of clear traces of their 

 former low condition in still-existing customs, beliefs, language. 

 &c.; and on the other side, of proofs that savages are independ- 

 ently able to raise themselves a few steps in the scale of civiliza- 

 tion, and have actually thus risen. The evidence on the first head 

 is extremely curious, but cannot be here given: I refer to such 

 cases as that of the art of enumeration, which, as Mr. Tylor 

 clearly shows by reference to the words still used in some places, 

 originated in counting the fingers, first of one hand and then of 

 the other, and lastly of the toes. We have traces of this in our 

 own decimal system, and in the Roman numerals, where, after the 

 v., which is supposed to be an abbreviated picture of a human 

 hand, we pass on to VI., &c., when the other hand no doubt was 

 used. So again, "when we speak of three-score and ten, we are 

 "counting by the vigesimal system, each score thus ideally made, 

 "standing for 20 — for 'one man' as a Mexican or Carib would put 

 "it.""'' According to a large and increasing school of philologists, 

 every language bears the marks of its slow and gradual evolution. 

 So it is with the art of writing, for letters are rudiments of pic- 

 torial representations. It is hardly possible to read Mr. M'Len- 

 nan's work'^ and not admit that almost all civilized nations still 

 retain traces of such rude habits as the forcible capture of wives. 

 What ancient nation, as the same author asks, can be named 



^ 'Primeval Man,' 1869. 



^ 'Royal Institution of Great Britain,' March IB, 1867. Also, 'Re- 

 s«aTches into the Early History of Mankind,' 1865. 



^ 'Primitive Marriage," 1865. See, likewise, an excellent article, evi- 

 dently by the same author, in the 'North British Review,' July, 1869. 

 Also, Mr. L. H. Morgan, 'A Conjectural Solution of the Origin of the 

 Class System of Relationship," in 'Proc. American Acad, of Sciences," 

 vol. vil. Feb. 1868. Prof. Schaaffhausen ('Anthropolog-. Review,' Oct. 

 1869, p. 373) remarks on "the vestiges of human sacrifices found both 

 "in Homer and the Old Testament." 



