184 
THE DESCENT OF MAN. 
Part I. 
ginally civilised and then suffered utter degradation in 
so many regions, is to take a pitiably low view of 
human nature. It is apparently a truer and more 
cheerful view that progress has been much more general 
than retrogression ; that man has risen, though by slow 
and interrupted steps, from a lowly condition to the 
highest standard as yet attained by him in knowledge, 
morals, and religion. 
