History of art . wood.(Guillaume Collection.) 168 MEDIEVAL ART reached the most original, even if not the highest, degreeof civilization that we find in modern times, the blackman remains, after centuries, what he was—an impulsivechild, ingenuously good, and ingenuously cruel; as in the case of other children, all of his actsspring from immediatesensation. And yet hiswas the only one of thegreat primitive raceswhich, inhabiting amassive continent inlarge numbers, lackedneither arms nor headsto modify its surround-ings, discover new rela-tionships, and createnew ideas. But thiscontinent is divi
History of art . wood.(Guillaume Collection.) 168 MEDIEVAL ART reached the most original, even if not the highest, degreeof civilization that we find in modern times, the blackman remains, after centuries, what he was—an impulsivechild, ingenuously good, and ingenuously cruel; as in the case of other children, all of his actsspring from immediatesensation. And yet hiswas the only one of thegreat primitive raceswhich, inhabiting amassive continent inlarge numbers, lackedneither arms nor headsto modify its surround-ings, discover new rela-tionships, and createnew ideas. But thiscontinent is dividedinto twenty sections bythe sands, the moun-tains, the brush, andthe virgin forests; it isinfested with wildbeasts, it is feverish andtorrid, and is cut in twoby the equator. Itsnorthern shores, thoseon the Mediterranean,are habitable for whitemen, and only these re-gions have, from the be-ginnings of history, par-ticipated in mans greatAfrica. Bronze from Benin. movements toward the{British Museum.) THE TROPICS 169 However, if we revert to the earliest times we dis-cover an Africa that was probably identical with whatit is at this hour, and consequently on the same levelwith that of the tribes that peopled the north and thewest of Europe—perhaps on a higher level. War and
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectart, bookyear1921
