. The history of mankind . man isinexhaustible. The best soil is worked out at last, but into the place of anexhausted generation of mankind there is always a new one ready to step, fullof youthful vigour. Resting on this basis, civilization is always most capable ofdevelopment among the dwellers in the temperate zones. But this force had tobe developed in slow, steady labour ; and the development of civilization is beforeall things a progressive training of every man to work. Undoubtedly every man must labour in order to live ; but if he likes to livein misery, he need not labour much. The to
. The history of mankind . man isinexhaustible. The best soil is worked out at last, but into the place of anexhausted generation of mankind there is always a new one ready to step, fullof youthful vigour. Resting on this basis, civilization is always most capable ofdevelopment among the dwellers in the temperate zones. But this force had tobe developed in slow, steady labour ; and the development of civilization is beforeall things a progressive training of every man to work. Undoubtedly every man must labour in order to live ; but if he likes to livein misery, he need not labour much. The total sum of labour performed by thesavage is often not less than that performed by the civilized man ; but he does itby fits and starts as the humour takes him, and not in a regular fashion. The lifeof the Bushman is an alternation of hunting expeditions, on which he oftenpursues the herds of wild animals for days together with extreme toil, andof gorging on the game he has taken, ending in slothful repletion, until hunger. Ashantee drinking cups of human skulls. (British Museum.) forces him to new exertions. Regular work at high pressure is what the savageabhors ; hence comes that trait of obstinate apathy in his countenance whichis an infallible means of distinguishing the spurious from the genuine the same reason he hates to learn a handicraft. The Negros passion fortrade, well illustrated by the fact that in Sierra Leone almost every fifth personis a shopkeeper, springs to a great extent from this distaste. Cannibalism, which is found in every quarter of the earth, and was once morewidely spread than now—for even Europe contains prehistoric remains andtraditions pointing to its prevalence—is not peculiar to the lowest stages of civiliza-tion, nor yet a phenomenon due to a single cause. Peoples like the Monbuttus,the Battaks, the Maoris are among the highest of the races to which they they are well off for men, and have not risen high enough to make
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectethnology, bookyear18
