630 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



equivalents in different languages, was devised "by man when lie 

 was still in a barbarous condition, when his hand was against 

 every other man, and every other man's hand was against him. 

 It was necessary that he should have some sort of a defense or 

 cover to enable him to attack his enemies without being immedi- 

 ately killed, and this defense or cover, whether it was a shield to 

 hold before his person or a strong wall built about his dwelling- 

 place, he called a protection. Holding the shield before him, he 

 could throw his spear or shoot his arrows at his enemy and not 

 be harmed by the spear or the arrows his enemy returned ; be- 

 hind the strong wall he could be safe from assault and carry on 

 the various activities of life without fear of molestation. He 

 could, if he chose, scour the surrounding region, and rob and kill 

 right and left, and get back to his strong wall before those he 

 attacked could rally and take him prisoner. The outside bar- 

 barians would not endure this sort of thing forever. They also 

 longed for protection. They got shields for themselves and built 

 strong walls about their places of refuge, and in this way groups 

 of what we now call society were first organized. Each of these 

 groups was a very barbarous sort of society, but it was society 

 nevertheless. A society means an association of persons for mu- 

 tual profit or advantage. The barbarous group was a society 

 based on protection, and protection was therefore an invention of 

 barbarism; it was armed and organized selfishness; it was the 

 means by which theft and rapine and murder were made possible 

 on a large scale. 



Time went on, and man gradually acquired better ideas of liv- 

 ing. The little protected groups who were continually making 

 war on each other and trying to prosper, each at the advantage of 

 the other's happiness and prosperity, were led to see that they 

 would be happier and more prosperous if they would stop mak- 

 ing war on each other, tear down their strong walls, and unite in 

 one harmonious community. It is not known who the first man 

 was that conceived this idea, but whoever he may have been 

 he was unquestionably a great benefactor to the human race. 

 The groups that united into communities, however, did not em- 

 brace the whole of mankind. In fact, in these first days of primi- 

 tive intelligence, a single community in which all mankind could 

 unite was out of the question. A good many groups were still so 

 barbarous that they preferred a hazardous existence maintained 

 by war, rather than the prosperity that was sure to follow a 

 friendly cultivation of the arts of peace. The groups that did 

 join into communities were closely related to one another by 

 blood ; they spoke the same or nearly the same language, they 

 had the same or similar customs, and their ideas of what life was 

 for were nearly identical. These groups united and formed larger 



