DEVELOPMENT OF THE MORAL SENSE. 211 



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 abbreriated picture of 

 a human hand, we pass on to VI, etc., when the other 

 hand no doubt was used. So again, "when we speak of 

 threescore and ten, we are counting by the vigesimal sys- 

 tem, each score thus ideally made standing for 20 — for 

 ' one man' as a Mexican or Carib would put it." Accord- 

 ing to a large and increasing school of philologists, every 

 language bears the marks of its slow and gradual evolu- 

 tion. So it is with the art of writing, for letters are ru- 

 diments of pictorial representations. It is hardly possible 

 to read Mr. McLennan'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 that was originally 

 monogamous ? The primitive idea of justice, as shown 

 by the law of battle and other customs of which vestiges 

 still remain, was likewise most rude. Many existing su- 

 perstitions are the remnants of former false religious be- 

 liefs. The highest form of religion — the grand idea of 

 God hating sin and loving righteousness — ^was unknown 

 during primeval times. 



Turning to the other kind of evidence : Sir J. Lub- 

 bock has shown that some savages have recently improved 

 a little in some of their simpler arts. From the extremely 

 curious account which he gives of the weapons, tools, and 

 arts in use among savages in various parts of the world, 

 it can not be doubted that these have nearly all been in- 

 dependent discoveries, excepting perhaps the art of making 

 fire. The Australian boomerang is a good instance of one 

 such independent discovery. The Tahitians when first 

 visited had advanced in many respects beyond the inhab- 

 itants of most of the other Polynesian islands. There 



