Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 2.djvu/663

Rh no indications of emerging, and cannot probably do so except by-influences from without.

Whatever opinion may be adopted as to the origin of man, it cannot be denied that we have descended from a race of ancestors but little elevated above the brute—from naked savages, the denizens of caves, feeding upon wild fruits, devouring shell-fish, or struggling for mere existence with the larger quadrupeds of the times, gradually emerging from this state by the invention of weapons of flint and bone, through long geological periods, into a pastoral condition; thence, again, into a higher state of mental development, which culminated in the civilization of Greece and Rome, in which the true in sentiment, and the beautiful in art, were developed in an astonishing degree. This progress was mainly due to the migratory character of the races which contributed to the condition we have mentioned. Tribes which remain entirely isolated may utilize the suggestions and facilities of life which are afforded them by their localities, and when these are exhausted become permanently stationary, but tribes impelled by want of subsistence, or the desire of conquest to migrate to other localities, as is stated to have been the case with the Aryan race in their migration from the East to the West, gather up the separate civilizations as they advance, and hence, by accretion or intercourse with others, rise to a higher plane. But this mode of advance is limited, and could make no further progress than that exhibited in the brilliant though unsymmetrical civilization of Greece and of Rome. This civilization, though it challenges our admiration and marks an important era in the history of the human race, was deficient in two of the essential elements of further progress, namely—first, in the prevailing influence of the higher and holier morality of Christianity; and, secondly, in that scientific knowledge of the laws of Nature which enables man to control its operations and to employ its energies to effect his purposes in ameliorating the condition of the earth. Without these elements of progress the Romans could not advance beyond a limited degree, and finally fell a prey to their barbarian conquerors.

Being confined in my remarks on this occasion to the discussion of the influence of physical science, I can only advert to the ameliorating effect produced by Christianity in its restraining influence on the semi-barbarism which followed the fall of the Roman Empire, and its aid in preserving the learning of the past through the darkness of the middle ages, and must leave to our theological brethren the full discussion of this part of our theme.

It is a fundamental principle of political economy that the physical state of man can only be ameliorated by means of labor, or, in other words, by the transformation of matter from a crude to an artificial condition. But this cannot be effected, except by expending what is called power or energy. In ancient times, almost the