THE PAST AND THE FUTURE. 
269 
day is a triumphant vindication of the possi¬ 
bility of preservation and elevation of the so- 
called inferior races, as against the cruel theory 
of necessary annihilation. One such race saved, 
as the Malagasy have been, and so far already 
asserting their national vitality and independence 
as to be able to send an embassy of native nobles 
of liberal education and excellent manners to 
the chief capitals of Europe, is, side by side with 
the preservation and protection of the native 
races in India, one of the greatest triumphs of 
the modern and somewhat novel method of treat¬ 
ing the less-favoured branches of the great human 
family. By the adoption centuries ago of a 
judicious policy of protection and sympathy, in 
the place of gunpowder and the bayonet, and the 
fearful evil of introducing everywhere cheap and 
deadly spirits, might not many of the aboriginal 
tribes whom we have dispossessed and swept out 
of existence have still been holding and enjoying 
in peace and security the lands and homes of 
their fathers % Let us remember that. 
The first great civilisation of the Greeks was 
one which delighted only in art and the pursuit of 
the beautiful, whilst the second great civilisation 
of Borne was bloody and aggressive, self-indul¬ 
gent and overbearing, insolent and unrestrained. 
Both these systems failed, lasting only for a 
time, and it is for the third great civilisation 
