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CHAPTER III. SURVIVAL OF CIVILIZATION.

Of the civilizations which were déveloped during Longlived ang tHe first and second epochs only two shortlived civili- have survived into the present epoch, ee —the Chinese and the Indian. The Egyptian civilization also had a long term of life (over six thousand years), having struggled on to the com- mencement of the third epoch. The civilizations which have come to an untimely end are more numerous,—those of Assyria, Phenicia, Greece, Rome and Persia in the old world and of Mexico and Peru in the new. An investigation of the causes which have enabled the Chinese and the Indian civilizations to out- live the others would enable us to deduce the condi- “tions of such survival.’ The cases, whether of survival. © Oi Re Sotinction, ate pahaps tio few ta warrant sound