WAY-MARKS OF CIVILIZATION. 
396 
WAY-MARKS OF CIVILIZATION. 
ABSTRACT OF MR. FRECKELTON's PAPER. 
(Read December 5th, 1872.) 
All true advance of knowledge is made by way of proceeding 
from the known to the unknown, and depends largely upon the 
method of analogy, which assumes that there is an unbroken 
continuity in Nature and Life, by virtue of which things upon 
different planes resemble each other — the lower suggesting the 
existence of the • higher, while the higher fully interprets the 
lower, and suggests something higher still. Instances of the law 
given from the different sciences — geology, palaeontology, biology, 
philology. The same rule and method apply to the investigation 
of pre-historic archaeology and the history of civilization, which 
seek in surviving manners and customs, laws, ceremonies, and 
superstitions, and in the manners and customs of existing savage 
peoples, for indications of the primeval condition of man and the 
course of civilization. 
No part of the question of this paper to enter into the dispute 
of the origin and general theory of civilization ; but to look at 
facts. 
Modes of intercommunication. Gesticulation as a language, or 
an aid to expression, prominent in children and partially educated 
people. The acted drama, opera, ballet, and pantomime. Deaf 
mutes, and their modes of communication : the universality and 
naturalness of many of their simple signs. The use of the same 
signs by savages and persons who do not understand each other's 
dialects. The number of such natural signs known to be more 
than 5,000; constituting a language of themselves; capable of 
expressing almost all ideas and emotions. Intonation, as an aid 
to speech, very expressive, often completely reversing the meaning 
of words. Was there ever a dumb race of men ? traditions on the 
subject. Different theories of the origin of language. "What was 
the original tongue? test experiments. Imitative root-forms of 
language : numerical signs, and many words connected with 
arithmetical processes, still show the naturalness of their origin. 
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