[1] See Shakespeare, _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v. sc. 2, where
Boyet compares the countenance of Holofernes to a cittern head; John
Forde, _Lovers' Melancholy_ (1629), act ii. sc. 1, "Barbers shall
wear thee on their citterns."
[2] _Dialogo della musica_ (Florence, 1581), p. 147.
[3] The musical extracts from the commonplace book were prepared by
Dr Rimbault for the Early English Text Society. Holborne's work is
mentioned in his _Bibliotheca Madrigaliana_. The descriptive list of
the musical instruments in use in England during Leycester's
lifetime (about 1656) has been extracted and published by Dr F.J.
Furnivall, in _Captain Cox, his Ballads and Books, or Robert
Laneham's Letter_ (1575), (London, 1871), pp. 65-68.
[4] See Knight's _London_, i. 142.
[5] See _De Vita propria sermonum inter liberos libri duo_ (Haarlem,
1817) and E. van der Straeten, _La Musique aux Pays-Bas_, ii.
348-35O.
[6] _Syntagma Musicum_ (1618). See also M. Mersenne, _Harmonie
universelle_ (Paris, 1636), livre ii. prop. xv., who gives different
accordances.
[7] See Carl Engel, _Catalogue_ of the Exhibition of Ancient Musical
Instruments (London, 1872), Nos. 289 and 290.
[8] See note above. Illustration in A.J. Hipkins, _Musical Instruments;
Historic, Rare and Unique_ (Edinburgh, 1888).
[9] For a resume of the question of the origin of this famous psalter,
and an inquiry into its bearing on the history of musical
instruments with illustrations and facsimile reproductions, see
Kathleen Schlesinger, _The Instruments of the Orchestra_, part ii.
"The Precursors of the Violin Family," pp. 127-166 (London,
1908-1909).
[10] An oval cittern and a ghittern, side by side, occur in the
beautiful 13th-century Spanish MS. known as _Cantigas de Santa
Maria_ in the Escorial. For a fine facsimile in colours see marquis
de Valmar, _Real. Acad. Esq._, publ. by L. Aguado (Madrid, 1889).
Reproductions in black and white in Juan F. Riano, _Critical and
Bibliog. Notes on Early Spanish Music_ (London, 1887). See also K.
Schlesinger, op. cit. fig. 167, p. 223, also boat-shaped citterns,
figs. 155 and 156, p. 197. Cittern with woman's head, 15th century,
on one of six bas-reliefs on the under parts of the seats of the
choir of the Priory church, Great Malvern, reproduced in J. Carter's
_Ancient Sculptures_, &c., vol. ii. pl. following p. 12. Another
without a head, ibid. pl. following p. 16, from a brass monumental
plate in St Margaret's, King's Lynn.
[11] _Historia utriusque Cosmi_ (Oppenheim, ed. 1617) i. 226.
CITY (through Fr. _cite_, from Lat. _civitas_). In the United Kingdom,
strictly speaking, "city" is an honorary title, officially applied to
those towns which, in virtue of some preeminence (e.g. as episcopal
sees, or great industrial centres), have by traditional usage or royal
charter acquired the right to the designation. In the United Kingdom the
official style of "city" does not necessarily involve the possession of
municipal power greater than those of the ordinary boroughs, nor indeed
the possession of a corporation at all (e.g. Ely). In the United States
and the British colonies, on the other hand, the official application of
the term "city" depends on the kind and extent of the municipal
privileges possessed by the corporations, and charters are given raising
towns to the rank of cities. Both in France and England the word is used
to distinguish the older and central nucleus of some of the large towns,
e.g. the _Cite_ in Paris, and the "square mile" under the jurisdiction
of the lord mayor which is the "City of London."
In common usage, however, the word implies no more than a somewhat vague
idea of size and dignity, and is loosely applied to any large centre of
population. Thus while, technically, the City of London is quite small,
London is yet properly described as the largest city in the world. In
the United States this use of the word is still more loose, and any
town, whether technically a city or not, is usually so designated, with
little regard to its actual size or importance.
It is clear from the above that the word "city" is incapable of any very
clear and inclusive definition, and the attempt to show that
historically it possesses a meaning that clearly differentiates it from
"town" or "borough" has led to some controversy. As the translation of
the Greek [Greek: polis] or Latin _civitas_ it involves the ancient
conception of the state or "city-state," i.e. of the state as not too
large to prevent its government through the body of the citizens
assembled in the _agora_, and is applied not to the place but to the
whole body politic. From this conception both the word and its dignified
connotation are without doubt historically derived. On the occupation of
Gaul the Gallic states and tribes were called _civitates_ by the Romans,
and subsequently the name was confined to the chief towns of the
various administrative districts. These were also the seats of the
bishops. It is thus affirmed that in France from the 5th to the 15th
century the name _civitas_ or _cite_ was confined to such towns as were
episcopal sees, and Du Cange (_Gloss._ s.v. _civitas_) defines that word
as _urbs episcopalis_, and states that other towns were termed _castra_
or _oppida_. How far any such distinction can be sharply drawn may be
doubted. With regard to England no definite line can be drawn between
those towns to which the name _civitas_ or _cite_ is given in medieval
documents and those called _burgi_ or boroughs (see J.H. Round, _Feudal
England_, p. 338; F.W. Maitland, _Domesday Book and After_, p. 183). It
was, however, maintained by Coke and Blackstone that a city is a town
incorporate which is or has been the see of a bishop. It is true,
indeed, that the actual sees in England all have a formal right to the
title; the boroughs erected into episcopal sees by Henry VIII. thereby
became "cities"; but towns such as Thetford, Sherborne and Dorchester
are never so designated, though they are regularly incorporated and were
once episcopal sees. On the other hand, it has only been since the
latter part of the 19th century that the official style of "city" has,
in the United Kingdom, been conferred by royal authority on certain
important towns which were not episcopal sees, Birmingham in 1889 being
the first to be so distinguished. It is interesting to note that London,
besides 27 boroughs, now contains two cities, one (the City of London)
outside, the other (the City of Westminster) included in the
administrative county.
For the history of the origin and development of modern city
government see BOROUGH and COMMUNE: _Medieval_.
CIUDAD BOLIVAR, an inland city and river port of Venezuela, capital of
the state of Bolivar, on the right bank of the Orinoco river, 240 m.
above its mouth. Pop. (1891) 11,686. It stands upon a small hill about
187 ft. above sea-level, and faces the river where it narrows to a width
of less than half a mile. The city is largely built upon the hillside.
It is the seat of the bishopric of Guayana (founded in 1790), and is the
commercial centre of the great Orinoco basin. Among its noteworthy
edifices are the cathedral, federal college, theatre, masonic temple,
market, custom-house, and hospital. The mean temperature is 83 deg. The
city has a public water-supply, a tramway line, telephone service,
subfluvial cable communication with Soledad near the mouth of the
Orinoco, where connexion is made with the national land lines, and
regular steamship communication with the lower and upper Orinoco.
Previous to the revolution of 1901-3 Ciudad Bolivar ranked fourth among
the Venezuelan custom-houses, but the restrictions placed upon transit
trade through West Indian ports have made her a dependency of the La
Guaira custom-house to a large extent. The principal exports from this
region include cattle, horses, mules, tobacco, cacao, rubber, tonka
beans, bitters, hides, timber and many valuable forest products. The
town was founded by Mendoza in 1764 as San Tomas de la Nueva Guayana,
but its location at this particular point on the river gave to it the
popular name of _Angostura_, the Spanish term for "narrows." This name
was used until 1849, when that of the Venezuelan liberator was bestowed
upon it. Ciudad Bolivar played an important part in the struggle for
independence and was for a time the headquarters of the revolution. The
town suffered severely in the struggle for its possession, and the
political disorders which followed greatly retarded its growth.
CIUDAD DE CURA, an inland town of the state of Aragua, Venezuela, 55 m.
S.W. of Caracas, near the Lago de Valencia. Pop. (1891) 12,198. The town
stands in a broad, fertile valley, between the sources of streams
running southward to the Guarico river and northward to the lake, with
an elevation above sea-level of 1598 ft. Traffic between Puerto Cabello
and the Guarico plains has passed through this town since early colonial
times, and has made it an important commercial centre, from which hides,
cheese, coffee, cacao and beans are sent down to the coast for export;
it bears a high reputation in Venezuela for commercial enterprise.
Ciudad de Cura was founded in 1730, and suffered severely in the war of
independence.
CIUDAD JUAREZ, formerly EL PASO DEL NORTE, a northern frontier town of
Mexico, in the state of Chihuahua, 1223 m. by rail N.N.W. of Mexico
City. Pop. (1895) 6917. Ciudad Juarez stands 3800 ft. above sea-level on
the right bank of the Rio Grande del Norte, opposite the city of El
Paso, Texas, with which it is connected by two bridges. It is the
northern terminus of the Mexican Central railway, and has a large and
increasing transit trade with the United States, having a custom-house
and a United States consulate. It is also a military post with a small
garrison. The town has a straggling picturesque appearance, a
considerable part of the habitations being small adobe or brick cabins.
In the fertile neighbouring district cattle are raised, and wheat,
Indian corn, fruit and grapes are grown, wine and brandy being made. The
town was founded in 1681-1682; its present importance is due entirely to
the railway. It was the headquarters of President Juarez in 1865, and
was renamed in 1885 because of its devotion to his cause.
CIUDAD PORFIRIO DIAZ, formerly PIEDRAS NEGRAS, a northern frontier town
of Mexico in the state of Coahuila, 1008 m. N. by W. from Mexico City,
on the Rio Grande del Norte, 720 ft. above sea-level, opposite the town
of Eagle Pass, Texas. Pop. (1900, estimate) 5000. An international
bridge connects the two towns, and the Mexican International railway has
its northern terminus in Mexico at this point. The town has an important
transfer trade with the United States, and is the centre of a fertile
district devoted to agriculture and stock-raising. Coal is found in the
vicinity. The Mexican government maintains a custom-house and military
post here. The town was founded in 1849.
CIUDAD REAL, a province of central Spain, formed in 1833 of districts
taken from New Castile, and bounded on the N. by Toledo, E. by Albacete,
S. by Jaen and Cordova and W. by Badajoz. Pop. (1900) 321,580; area,
7620 sq. m. The surface of Ciudad Real consists chiefly of a level or
slightly undulating plain, with low hills in the north-east and
south-west; but along the south-western frontier the Sierra de Alcudia
rises in two parallel ridges on either side of the river Alcudia, and is
continued in the Sierra Madrona on the east. The river Guadiana drains
almost the entire province, which it traverses from east to west; only
the southernmost districts being watered by tributaries of the
Guadalquivir. Numerous smaller streams flow into the Guadiana, which
itself divides near Herencia into two branches,--the northern known as
the Giguela, the southern as the Zancara. The eastern division of Ciudad
Real forms part of the region known as La Mancha, a flat, thinly-peopled
plain, clothed with meagre vegetation which is often ravaged by locusts.
La Mancha (q.v.) is sometimes regarded as coextensive with the whole
province. Severe drought is common here, although some of the rivers,
such as the Jabalon and Azuer, issue fully formed from the chalky soil,
and from their very sources give an abundant supply of water to the
numerous mills. Towards the west, where the land is higher, there are
considerable tracts of forest.
The climate is oppressively hot in summer, and in winter the plains are
exposed to violent and bitterly cold winds; while the cultivation of
grain, the vine and the olive is further impeded by the want of proper
irrigation, and the general barrenness of the soil. Large flocks of
sheep and goats find pasture in the plains; and the swine which are kept
in the oak and beech forests furnish bacon and hams of excellent
quality. Coal is mined chiefly at Puertollano, lead in various
districts, mercury at Almaden. There are no great manufacturing towns.
The roads are insufficient and ill-kept, especially in the north-east
where they form the sole means of communication; and neither the
Guadiana nor its tributaries are navigable. The main railway from Madrid
to Lisbon passes through the capital, Ciudad Real, and through
Puertollano; farther east, the Madrid-Linares line passes through
Manzanares and Valdepenas. Branch railways also connect the capital with
Manzanares, and Valdepenas with the neighbouring town of La Calzada.
The principal towns, Alcazar de San Juan (11,499), Almaden (7375),
Almodovar del Campo (12,525), Ciudad Real (15,255), Manzanares (11,229)
and Valdepenas (21,015), are described in separate articles. Almagro
(7974) and Daimiel (11,825), in the district of La Mancha known as the
Campo de Calatrava, belonged in the later middle ages to the knightly
Order of Calatrava, which was founded in 1158 to keep the Moors in
check. Almagro was long almost exclusively inhabited by monks and
knights, and contains several interesting churches and monasteries,
besides the castle of the knights, now used as barracks. Almagro is
further celebrated for its lace, Daimiel for its medicinal salts.
Tomelloso (13,929) is one of the chief market towns of La Mancha.
Education is very backward, largely owing to the extreme poverty which
has frequently brought the inhabitants to the verge of famine. (See also
CASTILE.)
CIUDAD REAL, the capital formerly of La Mancha, and since 1833 of the
province described above; 107 m. S. of Madrid, on the
Madrid-Badajoz-Lisbon and Ciudad Real-Manzanares railways. Pop. (1900)
15,255. Ciudad Real lies in the midst of a wide plain, watered on the
north by the river Guadiana, and on the south by its tributary the
Jabalon. Apart from the remnants of its 13th-century fortifications, and
one Gothic church of immense size, built without aisles, the town
contains little of interest; its public buildings--town-hall, barracks,
churches, hospital and schools--being in no way distinguished above those
of other provincial capitals. There are no important local manufactures,
and the trade of the town consists chiefly in the weekly sales of
agricultrural produce and live-stock. Ciudad Real was founded by Alphonso
X. of Castile (1252-1284), and fortified by him as a check upon the
Moorish power. Its original name of _Villarreal_ was changed to _Ciudad
Real_ by John VI. in 1420. During the Peninsular War a Spanish force was
defeated here by the French, on the 27th of March 1809.
CIUDAD RODRIGO, a town of western Spain, in the province of Salamanca,
situated 8 m. E. of the Portuguese frontier, on the right bank of the
river Agueda, and the railway from Salamanca to Coimbra in Portugal.
Pop. (1900) 8930. Ciudad Rodrigo is an episcopal see, and was for many
centuries an important frontier fortress. Its cathedral dates from 1190,
but was restored in the 15th century. The remnants of a Roman aqueduct,
the foundations of a bridge across the Agueda, and other remains, seem
to show that Ciudad Rodrigo occupies the site of a Roman settlement. It
was founded in the 12th century by Count Rodrigo Gonzalez, from whom its
name is derived. During the Peninsular War, it was captured by the
French under Marshal Ney, in 1810; but on the 19th of January 1812 it
was retaken by the British under Viscount Wellington, who, for this
exploit, was created earl of Wellington, duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, and
marquess of Torres Vedras, in Portugal.
CIVERCHIO, VINCENZO, an early 16th-century Italian painter, born at
Crema. There are altar-pieces by him at Brescia, and at Crema the
altar-piece at the duomo (1509). His "Birth of Christ" is in the Brera,
Milan; and at Lovere are other of his works dating from 1539 and 1540.
CIVET, or properly CIVET-CAT, the designation of the more typical
representatives of the mammalian family _Viverridae_ (see CARNIVORA).
Civets are characterized by the possession of a deep pouch in the
neighbourhood of the genital organs, into which the substance known as
civet is poured from the glands by which it is secreted. This fatty
substance is at first semifluid and yellow, but afterwards acquires the
consistency of pomade and becomes darker. It has a strong musky odour,
exceedingly disagreeable to those unaccustomed to it, but "when properly
diluted and combined with other scents it produces a very pleasing
effect, and possesses a much more floral fragrance than musk, indeed it
would be impossible to imitate some flowers without it." The African
civet (_Viverra civetta_) is from 2 to 3 ft. in length, exclusive of the
tail, which is half the length of the body, and stands from 10 to 12 in.
high. It is covered with long hair, longest on the middle line of the
back, where it is capable of being raised or depressed at will, of a
dark-grey colour, with numerous transverse black bands and spots. In
habits it is chiefly nocturnal, and by preference carnivorous, feeding
on birds and the smaller quadrupeds, in pursuit of which it climbs
trees, but it is said also to eat fruits, roots and other vegetable
matters. In a state of captivity the civet is never completely tamed,
and only kept for the sake of its perfume, which is obtained in largest
quantity from the male, especially when in good condition and subjected
to irritation, being scraped from the pouch with a small spoon usually
twice a week. The zibeth (_Viverra zibetha_) is a widely distributed
species extending from Arabia to Malabar, and throughout several of the
larger islands of the Indian Archipelago. It is smaller than the true
civet, and wants the dorsal crest. In the wild state it does great
damage among poultry, and frequently makes off with the young of swine
and sheep. When hunted it makes a determined resistance, and emits a
scent so strong as even to sicken the dogs, who nevertheless are
exceedingly fond of the sport, and cannot be got to pursue any other
game while the stench of the zibeth is in their nostrils. In
confinement, it becomes comparatively tame, and yields civet in
considerable quantity. In preparing this for the market it is usually
spread out on the leaves of the pepper plant in order to free it from
the hairs that have become detached from the pouch. On the Malabar coast
this species is replaced by _V. civettina_. The small Indian civet or
rasse (_Viverricula malaccensis_) ranges from Madagascar through India
to China, the Malay Peninsula, and the islands of the Archipelago. It is
almost 3 ft. long including the tail, and prettily marked with dark
longitudinal stripes, and spots which have a distinctly linear
arrangement. The perfume, which is extracted in the same way as in the
two preceding species, is highly valued and much used by the Javanese.
Although this animal is said to be an expert climber it usually inhabits
holes in the ground. It is frequently kept in captivity in the East, and
becomes tame. Fossil remains of extinct civets are found in the Miocene
strata of Europe.
CIVIDALE DEL FRIULI (anc. _Forum Iulii_), a town of Venetia, Italy, in
the province of Udine, 10 m. E. by N. by rail from the town of Udine;
453 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1001) town, 4143; commune, 9061. It is
situated on the river Natisone, which forms a picturesque ravine here.
It contains some interesting relics of the art of the 8th century. The
cathedral of the 15th century contains an octagonal marble canopy with
sculptures in relief, with a font below it belonging to the 8th century,
but altered later. The high altar has a fine silver altar front of 1185.
The museum contains various Roman and Lombard antiquities, and valuable
MSS. and works of art in gold, silver and ivory formerly belonging to
the cathedral chapter. The small church of S. Maria in Valle belongs to
the 8th century, and contains fine decorations in stucco which probably
belong to the 11th or 12th century. The fine 15th-century Ponte del
Diavolo leads to the church of S. Martino, which contains an altar of
the 8th century with reliefs executed by order of the Lombard king
Ratchis. At Cividale were born Paulus Diaconus, the historian of the
Lombards in the time of Charlemagne, and the actress Adelaide Ristori
(1822-1906).
The Roman town (a _municipium_) of Forum Iulii was founded either by
Julius Caesar or by Augustus, no doubt at the same time as the
construction of the Via Iulia Augusta, which passed through Utina
(Udine) on its way north. After the decay of Aquileia and Iulium
Carnicum (Zuglio) it became the chief town of the district of Friuli and
gave its name to it. The patriarchs of Aquileia resided here from 773 to
1031, when they returned to Aquileia, and finally in 1238 removed to
Udine. This last change of residence was the origin of the antagonism
between Cividale and Udine, which was only terminated by their surrender
to Venice in 1419 and 1420 respectively.
CIVILIS, CLAUDIUS, or more correctly, JULIUS, leader of the Batavian
revolt against Rome (A.D. 69-70). He was twice imprisoned on a charge of
rebellion, and narrowly escaped execution. During the disturbances that
followed the death of Nero, he took up arms under pretence of siding
with Vespasian and induced the inhabitants of his native country to
rebel. The Batavians, who had rendered valuable aid under the early
emperors, had been well treated in order to attach them to the cause of
Rome. They were exempt from tribute, but were obliged to supply a large
number of men for the army, and the burden of conscription and the
oppressions of provincial governors were important incentives to revolt.
The Batavians were immediately joined by several neighbouring German
tribes, the most important of whom were the Frisians. The Roman
garrisons near the Rhine were driven out, and twenty-four ships
captured. Two legions under Mummius Lupercus were defeated at Castra
Vetera (near the modern Xanten) and surrounded. Eight cohorts of
Batavian veterans joined their countrymen, and the troops sent by
Vespasian to the relief of Vetera threw in their lot with them. The
result of these accessions to the forces of Civilis was a rising in
Gaul. Hordeonius Flaccus was murdered by his troops (70), and the whole
of the Roman forces were induced by two commanders of the Gallic
auxiliaries--Julius Classicus and Julius Tutor--to revolt from Rome and
join Civilis. The whole of Gaul thus practically declared itself
independent, and the foundation of a new kingdom of Gaul was
contemplated. The prophetess Velleda predicted the complete success of
Civilis and the fall of the Roman Empire. But disputes broke out amongst
the different tribes and rendered co-operation impossible; Vespasian,
having successfully ended the civil war, called upon Civilis to lay down
his arms, and on his refusal resolved to take strong measures for the
suppression of the revolt. The arrival of Petillius Cerialis with a
strong force awed the Gauls and mutinous troops into submission; Civilis
was defeated at Augusta Treverorum (Trier, Treves) and Vetera, and
forced to withdraw to the island of the Batavians. He finally came to an
agreement with Cerialis whereby his countrymen obtained certain
advantages, and resumed amicable relations with Rome. From this time
Civilis disappears from history.
The chief authority for the history of the insurrection is Tacitus,
_Historiae_, iv., v., whose account breaks off at the beginning of
Civilis's speech to Cerialis; see also Josephus, _Bellum Judaicum_,
vii. 4. There is a monograph by E. Meyer, _Der Freiheitskrieg der
Bataver unter Civilis_ (1856); see also Merivale, _Hist. of the Romans
under the Empire_, ch. 58; H. Schiller, _Geschichte der roemischen
Kaiserzeit_, bk. ii. ch. 2, Sec. 54 (1883).
CIVILIZATION. The word "civilization" is an obvious derivative of the
Lat. _civis_, a citizen, and _civilis_, pertaining to a citizen.
Etymologically speaking, then, it would be putting no undue strain upon
the word to interpret it as having to do with the entire period of human
progress since mankind attained sufficient intelligence and social unity
to develop a system of government. But in practice "civilization" is
usually interpreted in a somewhat narrower sense, as having application
solely to the most recent and comparatively brief period of time that
has elapsed since the most highly developed races of men have used
systems of writing. This restricted usage is probably explicable, in
part at least, by the fact that the word, though distinctly modern in
origin, is nevertheless older than the interpretation of social
evolution that now finds universal acceptance. Only very recently has it
come to be understood that primitive societies vastly antedating the
historical period had attained relatively high stages of development and
fixity, socially and politically. Now that this is understood, however,
nothing but an arbitrary and highly inconvenient restriction of meanings
can prevent us from speaking of the citizens of these early societies as
having attained certain stages of civilization. It will be convenient,
then, in outlining the successive stages of human progress here, to
include under the comprehensive term "civilization" those long earlier
periods of "savagery" and "barbarism" as well as the more recent period
of higher development to which the word "civilization" is sometimes
restricted.
Savagery and barbarism.
Adequate proof that civilization as we now know it is the result of a
long, slow process of evolution was put forward not long after the
middle of the 19th century by the students of palaeontology and of
prehistoric archaeology. A recognition of the fact that primitive man
used implements of chipped flint, of polished stone, and of the softer
metals for successive ages, before he attained a degree of technical
skill and knowledge that would enable him to smelt iron, led the Danish
archaeologists to classify the stages of human progress under these
captions: the Rough Stone Age; the Age of Polished Stone; the Age of
Bronze; and the Age of Iron. These terms acquired almost universal
recognition, and they retain popularity as affording a very broad
outline of the story of human progress. It is obviously desirable,
however, to fill in the outlines of the story more in detail. To some
extent it has been possible to do so, largely through the efforts of
ethnologists who have studied the social conditions of existing races of
savages. A recognition of the principle that, broadly speaking, progress
has everywhere been achieved along the same lines and through the same
sequence of changes, makes it possible to interpret the past history of
the civilized races of to-day in the light of the present-day conditions
of other races that are still existing under social and political
conditions of a more primitive type. Such races as the Maoris and the
American Indians have furnished invaluable information to the student of
social evolution; and the knowledge thus gained has been extended and
fortified by the ever-expanding researches of the palaeontologist and
archaeologist.
Thus it has become possible to present with some confidence a picture
showing the successive stages of human development during the long dark
period when our prehistoric ancestor was advancing along the toilsome
and tortuous but on the whole always uprising path from lowest savagery
to the stage of relative enlightenment at which we find him at the
so-called "dawnings of history." That he was for long ages a savage
before he attained sufficient culture to be termed, in modern
phraseology, a barbarian, admits of no question. Equally little in doubt
is it that other long ages of barbarism preceded the final ascent to
civilization. The precise period of time covered by these successive
"Ages" is of course only conjectural; but something like one hundred
thousand years may perhaps be taken as a safe minimal estimate. At the
beginning of this long period, the most advanced race of men must be
thought of as a promiscuous company of pre-troglodytic mammals, at least
partially arboreal in habit, living on uncooked fruits and vegetables,
and possessed of no arts and crafts whatever--nor even of the knowledge
of the rudest implement. At the end of the period, there emerges into
the more or less clear light of history a large-brained being, living in
houses of elaborate construction, supplying himself with divers luxuries
through the aid of a multitude of elaborate handicrafts, associated with
his fellows under the sway of highly organized governments, and
satisfying aesthetic needs through the practice of pictorial and
literary arts of a high order. How was this amazing transformation
brought about?
Crucial developments.
If an answer can be found to that query, we shall have a clue to all
human progress, not only during the prehistoric but also during the
historic periods; for we may well believe that recent progress has not
departed from the scheme of development impressed on humanity during
that long apprenticeship. Ethnologists believe that an answer can be
found. They believe that the metamorphosis from beast-like savage to
cultured civilian may be proximally explained (certain potentialities
and attributes of the species being taken for granted) as the result of
accumulated changes that found their initial impulses in a half-dozen or
so of practical inventions. Stated thus, the explanation seems absurdly
simple. Confessedly it supplies only a proximal, not a final, analysis
of the forces impelling mankind along the pathway of progress. But it
has the merit of tangibility; it presents certain highly important facts
of human history vividly: and it furnishes a definite and fairly
satisfactory basis for marking successive stages of incipient
civilization.
In outlining the story of primitive man's advancement, upon such a
basis, we may follow the scheme of one of the most philosophical of
ethnologists, Lewis H. Morgan, who made a provisional analysis of the
prehistoric period that still remains among the most satisfactory
attempts in this direction. Morgan divides the entire epoch of man's
progress from bestiality to civilization into six successive periods,
which he names respectively the Older, Middle and Later periods of
Savagery, and the Older, Middle and Later periods of Barbarism.
Speech.
The first of these periods, when mankind was in the lower status of
savagery, comprises the epoch when articulate speech was being
developed. Our ancestors of this epoch inhabited a necessarily
restricted tropical territory, and subsisted upon raw nuts and fruits.
They had no knowledge of the uses of fire. All existing races of men had
advanced beyond this condition before the opening of the historical
period.
Fire.
The Middle Period of Savagery began with a knowledge of the uses of
fire. This wonderful discovery enabled the developing race to extend its
habitat almost indefinitely, and to include flesh, and in particular
fish, in its regular dietary. Man could now leave the forests, and
wander along the shores and rivers, migrating to climates less
enervating than those to which he had previously been confined.
Doubtless he became an expert fisher, but he was as yet poorly equipped
for hunting, being provided, probably, with no weapon more formidable
than a crude hatchet and a roughly fashioned spear. The primitive races
of Australia and Polynesia had not advanced beyond this middle status of
savagery when they were discovered a few generations ago. It is obvious,
then, that in dealing with the further progress of nascent civilization
we have to do with certain favoured portions of the race, which sought
out new territories and developed new capacities while many tribes of
their quondam peers remained static and hence by comparison seemed to
retrograde.
Bow and arrow.
The next great epochal discovery, in virtue of which a portion of the
race advanced to the Upper Status of Savagery, was that of the bow and
arrow,--a truly wonderful implement. The possessor of this device could
bring down the fleetest animal and could defend himself against the most
predatory. He could provide himself not only with food but with
materials for clothing and for tent-making, and thus could migrate at
will back from the seas and large rivers, and far into inhospitable but
invigorating temperate and sub-Arctic regions. The meat diet, now for
the first time freely available, probably contributed, along with the
stimulating climate, to increase the physical vigour and courage of this
highest savage, thus urging him along the paths of progress.
Nevertheless many tribes came thus far and no further, as witness the
Athapascans of the Hudson's Bay Territory and the Indians of the valley
of the Columbia.
Pottery.
We now come to the marvellous discovery that enabled our ancestor to
make such advances upon the social conditions of his forbears as to
entitle him, in the estimate of his remote descendants, to be considered
as putting savagery behind him and as entering upon the Lower Status of
Barbarism. The discovery in question had to do with the practice of the
art of making pottery (see CERAMICS). Hitherto man had been possessed of
no permanent utensils that could withstand the action of fire. He could
not readily boil water except by some such cumbersome method as the
dropping of heated stones into a wooden or skin receptacle. The effect
upon his dietary of having at hand earthen vessels in which meat and
herbs could be boiled over a fire must have been momentous. Various
meats and many vegetables become highly palatable when boiled that are
almost or quite inedible when merely roasted before a fire. Bones,
sinews and even hides may be made to give up a modicum of nutriment in
this way; and doubtless barbaric man, before whom starvation always
loomed threateningly, found the crude pot an almost perennial refuge.
And of course its use as a cooking utensil was only one of many ways in
which the newly discovered mechanism exerted a civilizing influence.
Domestic animals.
The next great progressive movement, which carried man into the Middle
Status of Barbarism, is associated with the domestication of animals in
the Eastern hemisphere, and with the use of irrigation in cultivating
the soil and of adobe bricks and stone in architecture in the Western
hemisphere. The dog was probably the first animal to be domesticated,
but the sheep, the ox, the camel and the horse were doubtless added in
relatively rapid succession, so soon as the idea that captive animals
could be of service had been clearly conceived. Man now became a
herdsman, no longer dependent for food upon the precarious chase of wild
animals. Milk, procurable at all seasons, made a highly important
addition to his dietary. With the aid of camel and horse he could
traverse wide areas hitherto impassable, and come in contact with
distant peoples. Thus commerce came to play an extended role in the
dissemination of both commodities and ideas. In particular the nascent
civilization of the Mediterranean region fell heir to numerous products
of farther Asia,--gums, spices, oils, and most important of all, the
cereals. The cultivation of the latter gave the finishing touch to a
comprehensive and varied diet, while emphasizing the value of a fixed
abode. For the first time it now became possible for large numbers of
people to form localized communities. A natural consequence was the
elaboration of political systems, which, however, proceeded along lines
already suggested by the experience of earlier epochs. All this tended
to establish and emphasize the idea of nationality, based primarily on
blood-relationship; and at the same time to develop within the community
itself the idea of property,--that is to say, of valuable or desirable
commodities which have come into the possession of an individual through
his enterprise or labour, and which should therefore be subject to his
voluntary disposal. At an earlier stage of development, all property had
been of communal, not of individual, ownership. It appears, then, that
our mid-period barbarian had attained--if the verbal contradiction be
permitted--a relatively high stage of civilization.
Iron.
There remained, however, one master craft of which he had no conception.
This was the art of smelting iron. When, ultimately, his descendants
learned the wonderful secrets of that art, they rose in consequence to
the Upper Status of Barbarism. This culminating practical invention, it
will be observed, is the first of the great discoveries with which we
have to do that was not primarily concerned with the question of man's
food supply. Iron, to be sure, has abundant uses in the same connexion,
but its most direct and obvious utilities have to do with weapons of war
and with implements calculated to promote such arts of peace as
house-building, road-making and the construction of vehicles. Wood and
stone could now be fashioned as never before. Houses could be built and
cities walled with unexampled facility; to say nothing of the making of
a multitude of minor implements and utensils hitherto quite unknown, or
at best rare and costly. Nor must we overlook the aesthetic influence of
edged implements, with which wood and stone could readily be sculptured
when placed in the hands of a race that had long been accustomed to
scratch the semblance of living forms on bone or ivory and to fashion
crude images of clay. In a word, man, the "tool-making animal," was now
for the first time provided with tools worthy of his wonderful hands and
yet more wonderful brain.
Thus through the application of one revolutionary invention after
another, the most advanced races of men had arrived, after long ages of
effort, at a relatively high stage of development. A very wide range of
experiences had enabled man to evolve a complex body politic, based on a
fairly secure social basis, and his brain had correspondingly developed
into a relatively efficient and stable organ of thought. But as yet he
had devised no means of communicating freely with other people at a
distance except through the medium of verbal messages; nor had he any
method by which he could transmit his experiences to posterity more
securely than by fugitive and fallible oral traditions. A vague
symbolization of his achievements was preserved from generation to
generation in myth-tale and epic, but he knew not how to make permanent
record of his history. Until he could devise a means to make such
record, he must remain, in the estimate of his descendants, a barbarian,
though he might be admitted to have become a highly organized and even
in a broad sense a cultured being.
Writing.
At length, however, this last barrier was broken. Some race or races
devised a method of symbolizing events and ultimately of making even
abstruse ideas tangible by means of graphic signs. In other words, a
system of writing was developed. Man thus achieved a virtual conquest
over time as he had earlier conquered space. He could now transmit the
record of his deeds and his thoughts to remote posterity. Thus he stood
at the portals of what later generations would term secure history. He
had graduated out of barbarism, and become in the narrower sense of the
word a civilized being. Henceforth, his knowledge, his poetical
dreamings, his moral aspirations might be recorded in such form as to be
read not merely by his contemporaries but by successive generations of
remote posterity. The inspiring character of such a message is obvious.
The validity of making this great culminating intellectual achievement
the test of "civilized" existence need not be denied. But we should ill
comprehend the character of the message which the earlier generations of
civilized beings transmit to us from the period which we term the
"dawning of history" did we not bear constantly in mind the long series
of progressive stages of "savagery" and "barbarism" that of necessity
preceded the final stage of "civilization" proper. The achievements of
those earlier stages afforded the secure foundation for the progress of
the future. A multitude of minor arts, in addition to the important ones
just outlined, had been developed; and for a long time civilized man was
to make no other epochal addition to the list of accomplishments that
came to him as a heritage from his barbaric progenitor. Indeed, even to
this day the list of such additions is not a long one, nor, judged in
the relative scale, so important as might at first thought be supposed.
Whoever considers the subject carefully must admit the force of Morgan's
suggestion that man's achievements as a barbarian, considered in their
relation to the sum of human progress, "transcend, in relative
importance, all his subsequent works."
Without insisting on this comparison, however, let us ask what
discoveries and inventions man has made within the historical period
that may fairly be ranked with the half-dozen great epochal achievements
that have been put forward as furnishing the keys to all the progress of
the prehistoric periods. In other words, let us sketch the history of
progress during the ten thousand years or so that have elapsed since man
learned the art of writing, adapting our sketch to the same scale which
we have already applied to the unnumbered millenniums of the prehistoric
period. The view of world-history thus outlined will be a very different
one from what might be expected by the student of national history; but
it will present the essentials of the progress of civilization in a
suggestive light.
Civilization proper.
Without pretending to fix an exact date,--which the historical records
do not at present permit,--we may assume that the most advanced race of
men elaborated a system of writing not less than six thousand years
before the beginning of the Christian era. Holding to the terminology
already suggested for the earlier periods, we may speak of man's
position during the ensuing generations as that of the First or Lowest
Status of civilization. If we review the history of this period we shall
find that it extends unbroken over a stretch of at least four or five
thousand years. During the early part of this period such localized
civilizations as those of the Egyptians, the Sumerians, the Babylonians
and the Hittites rose, grew strong and passed beyond their meridian.
This suggests that we must now admit the word "civilization" to yet
another definition, within its larger meaning: we must speak of "_a_
civilization," as that of Egypt, of Babylonia, of Assyria, and we must
understand thereby a localized phase of society bearing the same
relation to civilization as a whole that a wave bears to the ocean or a
tree to the forest. Such other localized civilizations as those of
Phoenicia, Carthage, Greece, Rome, Byzantium, the Sassanids, in due
course waxed and waned, leaving a tremendous imprint on national
history, but creating only minor and transitory ripples in the great
ocean of civilization. Progress in the elaboration of the details of
earlier methods and inventions took place as a matter of course. Some
nation, probably the Phoenicians, gave a new impetus to the art of
writing by developing a phonetic alphabet; but this achievement,
remarkable as it was in itself, added nothing fundamental to human
capacity. Literatures had previously flourished through the use of
hieroglyphic and syllabic symbols; and the Babylonian syllabics
continued in vogue throughout western Asia for a long time after the
Phoenician alphabet had demonstrated its intrinsic superiority.
Similarly the art of Egyptian and Assyrian and Greek was but the
elaboration and perfection of methods that barbaric man had practised
away back in the days when he was a cave-dweller. The weapons of warfare
of Greek and Roman were the spear and the bow and arrow that their
ancestors had used in the period of savagery, aided by sword and helmet
dating from the upper period of barbarism. Greek and Roman government at
their best were founded upon the system of _gentes_ that barbaric man
had profoundly studied,--as witness, for example, the federal system of
the barbaric Iroquois Indians existing in America before the coming of
Columbus. And if the Greeks had better literature, the Romans better
roads and larger cities, than their predecessors, these are but matters
of detailed development, the like of which had marked the progress of
the more important arts and the introduction of less important ancillary
ones in each antecedent period. The axe of steel is no new implement,
but a mere perfecting of the axe of chipped flint. The _Iliad_
represents the perfecting of an art that unnumbered generations of
barbarians practised before their camp-fires.
Great inventions of the middle ages.
Thus for six or seven thousand years after man achieved civilization
there was rhythmic progress in many lines, but there came no great
epochal invention to usher in a new ethnic period. Then, towards the
close of what historians of to-day are accustomed to call the middle
ages, there appeared in rapid sequence three or four inventions and a
great scientific discovery that, taken together, were destined to change
the entire aspect of European civilization. The inventions were
gunpowder, the mariner's compass, paper and the printing-press, three of
which appear to have been brought into Europe by the Moors, whether or
not they originated in the remote East. The scientific discovery which
must be coupled with these inventions was the Copernican demonstration
that the sun and not the earth is the centre of our planetary system.
The generations of men that found themselves (1) confronted with the
revolutionary conception of the universe given by the Copernican theory;
(2) supplied with the new means of warfare provided by gunpowder; (3)
equipped with an undreamed-of guide across the waters of the earth; and
(4) enabled to promulgate knowledge with unexampled speed and cheapness
through the aid of paper and printing-press--such generations of men
might well be said to have entered upon a new ethnic period. The
transition in their mode of thought and in their methods of practical
life was as great as can be supposed to have resulted, in an early
generation, from the introduction of iron, or in a yet earlier from the
invention of the bow and arrow. So the Europeans of about the 15th
century of the Christian era may be said to have entered upon the Second
or Middle Status of civilization.
Steam machinery.
The new period was destined to be a brief one. It had compassed only
about four hundred years when, towards the close of the 18th century,
James Watt gave to the world the perfected steam-engine. Almost
contemporaneously Arkwright and Hargreaves developed revolutionary
processes of spinning and weaving by machinery. Meantime James Hutton
and William Smith and their successors on the one hand, and Erasmus
Darwin, Francois Lamarck, and (a half-century later) Charles Darwin on
the other, turned men's ideas topsy-turvy by demonstrating that the
world as the abiding-place of animals and man is enormously old, and
that man himself instead of deteriorating from a single perfect pair six
thousand years removed, has ascended from bestiality through a slow
process of evolution extending over hundreds of centuries. The
revolution in practical life and in the mental life of our race that
followed these inventions and this new presentation of truth probably
exceeded in suddenness and in its far-reaching effects the metamorphosis
effected at any previous transition from one ethnic period to another.
The men of the 19th century, living now in the period that may be termed
the Upper Status of civilization, saw such changes effected in the
practical affairs of their everyday lives as had not been wrought before
during the entire historical period. Their fathers had travelled in
vehicles drawn by horses, quite as their remoter ancestors had done
since the time of higher barbarism. It may be doubted whether there
existed in the world in the year 1800 a postal service that could
compare in speed and efficiency with the express service of the Romans
of the time of Caesar; far less was there a telegraph service that could
compare with that of the ancient Persians. Nor was there a ship sailing
the seas that a Phoenician trireme might not have overhauled. But now
within the lifetime of a single man the world was covered with a network
of steel rails on which locomotives drew gigantic vehicles, laden with
passengers at an hourly speed almost equalling Caesar's best journey of
a day; over the land and under the seas were stretched wires along which
messages coursed from continent to continent literally with the speed of
lightning; and the waters of the earth were made to teem with gigantic
craft propelled without sail or oar at a speed which the Phoenician
captain of three thousand years ago and the English captain of the 18th
century would alike have held incredible.
Social and political organization.
There is no need to give further details here of the industrial
revolutions that have been achieved in this newest period of
civilization, since in their broader outlines at least they are familiar
to every one. Nor need we dwell upon the revolution in thought whereby
man has for the first time been given a clear inkling as to his origin
and destiny. It suffices to point out that such periods of fermentation
of ideas as this suggests have probably always been concomitant with
those outbursts of creative genius that gave the world the practical
inventions upon which human progress has been conditioned. The same
attitude of receptivity to new ideas is pre-requisite to one form of
discovery as to the other. Nor, it may be added, can either form of idea
become effective for the progress of civilization except in proportion
as a large body of any given generation are prepared to receive it.
Doubtless here and there a dreamer played with fire, in a literal sense,
for generations before the utility of fire as a practical aid to human
progress came to be recognized in practice. And--to seek an illustration
at the other end of the scale--we know that the advanced thinkers of
Greece and Rome believed in the antiquity of the earth and in the
evolution of man two thousand years before the coming of Darwin. We have
but partly solved the mysteries of the progress of civilization, then,
when we have pointed out that each tangible stage of progress owed its
initiative to a new invention or discovery of science. To go to the root
of the matter we must needs explain how it came about that a given
generation of men was in mental mood to receive the new invention or
discovery.
The pursuit of this question would carry us farther into the realm of
communal and racial psychology--to say nothing of the realm of
conjecture--than comports with the purpose of this article. It must
suffice to point out that alertness of mind--that all mentality--is, in
the last analysis, a reaction to the influences of the environment. It
follows that man may subject himself to new influences and thus give his
mind a new stimulus by changing his habitat. A fundamental secret of
progress is revealed in this fact. Man probably never would have evolved
from savagery had he remained in the Tropics where he doubtless
originated. But successive scientific inventions enabled him, as has
been suggested, to migrate to distant latitudes, and thus more or less
involuntarily to become the recipient of new creative and progressive
impulses. After migrations in many directions had resulted in the
development of divers races, each with certain capacities and
acquirements due to its unique environment, there was opportunity for
the application of the principle of environmental stimulus in an
indirect way, through the mingling and physical intermixture of one race
with another. Each of the great localized civilizations of antiquity
appears to have owed its prominence in part at least--perhaps very
largely--to such intermingling of two or more races. Each of these
civilizations began to decay so soon as the nation had remained for a
considerable number of generations in its localized environment, and had
practically ceased to receive accretions from distant races at
approximately the same stage of development. There is a suggestive
lesson for present-day civilization in that thought-compelling fact.
Further evidence of the application of the principle of environmental
stimulus, operating through changed habitat and racial intermixture, is
furnished by the virility of the colonial peoples of our own day. The
receptiveness to new ideas and the rapidity of material progress of
Americans, South Africans and Australians are proverbial. No one doubts,
probably, that one or another of these countries will give a new
stimulus to the progress of civilization, through the promulgation of
some great epochal discovery, in the not distant future. Again, the
value of racial intermingling is shown yet nearer home in the
long-continued vitality of the British nation, which is explicable, in
some measure at least, by the fact that the Celtic element held aloof
from the Anglo-Saxon element century after century sufficiently to
maintain racial integrity, yet mingled sufficiently to give and receive
the fresh stimulus of "new blood." It is interesting in this connexion
to examine the map of Great Britain with reference to the birthplaces of
the men named above as being the originators of the inventions and
discoveries that made the close of the 18th century memorable as
ushering in a new ethnic era. It may be added that these names suggest
yet another element in the causation of progress: the fact, namely,
that, however necessary racial receptivity may be to the dynamitic
upheaval of a new ethnic era, it is after all _individual_ genius that
applies its detonating spark.
Nine periods of progress.
Without further elaboration of this aspect of the subject it may be
useful to recapitulate the analysis of the evolution of civilization
above given, prior to characterizing it from another standpoint. It
appears that the entire period of human progress up to the present may
be divided into nine periods which, if of necessity more or less
arbitrary, yet are not without certain warrant of logic. They may be
defined as follows: (1) The Lower Period of Savagery, terminating with
the discovery and application of the uses of fire. (2) The Middle Period
of Savagery, terminating with the invention of the bow and arrow. (3)
The Upper Period of Savagery, terminating with the invention of pottery.
(4) The Lower Period of Barbarism, terminating with the domestication of
animals. (5) The Middle Period of Barbarism, terminating with the
discovery of the process of smelting iron ore. (6) The Upper Period of
Barbarism, terminating with the development of a system of writing
meeting the requirements of literary composition. (7) The First Period
of Civilization (proper) terminating with the introduction of gunpowder.
(8) The Second Period of Civilization, terminating with the invention of
a practical steam-engine. (9) The Upper Period of Civilization, which is
still in progress, but which, as will be suggested in a moment, is
probably nearing its termination.
It requires but a glance at the characteristics of these successive
epochs to show the ever-increasing complexity of the inventions that
delimit them and of the conditions of life that they connote. Were we to
attempt to characterize in a few phrases the entire story of achievement
thus outlined, we might say that during the three stages of Savagery man
was attempting to make himself master of the geographical climates. His
unconscious ideal was, to gain a foothold and the means of subsistence
in every zone. During the three periods of Barbarism the ideal of
conquest was extended to the beasts of the field, the vegetable world,
and the mineral contents of the earth's crust. During the three periods
of Civilization proper the ideal of conquest has become still more
intellectual and subtle, being now extended to such abstractions as an
analysis of speech-sounds, and to such intangibles as expanding gases
and still more elusive electric currents: in other words, to the forces
of nature, no less than to tangible substances. Hand in hand with this
growing complexity of man's relations with the external world has gone a
like increase of complexity in the social and political organizations
that characterize man's relations with his fellowmen. In savagery the
family expanded into the tribe; in barbarism the tribe developed into
the nation. The epoch of civilization proper is aptly named, because it
has been a time in which citizenship, in the narrower national
significance, has probably been developed to its apogee. Throughout this
period, in every land, the highest virtue has been considered to be
patriotism,--by which must be understood an instinctive willingness on
the part of every individual to defend even with his life the interests
of the nation into which he chances to be born, regardless of whether
the national cause in which he struggles be in any given case good or
bad, right or wrong. The communal judgment of this epoch pronounces any
man a traitor who will not uphold his own nation even in a wrong
cause--and the word "traitor" marks the utmost brand of ignominy.
Nationality and cosmopolitanism.
But while the idea of nationality has thus been accentuated, there has
been a never-ending struggle within the bounds of the nation itself to
adjust the relations of one citizen to another. The ideas that might
makes right, that the strong man must dominate the weak, that leadership
in the community properly belongs to the man who is physically most
competent to lead--these ideas were a perfectly natural, and indeed an
inevitable, outgrowth of the conditions under which man fought his way
up through savagery and barbarism. Man in the first period of
civilization inherited these ideas, along with the conditions of society
that were their concomitants. So throughout the periods when the
oriental civilizations of Egypt and Babylonia and Assyria and Persia
were dominant, a despotic form of government was accepted as the natural
order of things. It does not appear that any other form was even
considered as a practicality. A despot might indeed be overthrown, but
only to make way for the coronation of another despot. A little later
the Greeks and Romans modified the conception of a heaven-sent
individual monarch; but they went no further than to substitute a
heaven-favoured community, with specially favoured groups (_Patricii_)
within the community. With this, national egoism reached its climax; for
each people regarded its own citizens as the only exemplars of
civilization, openly branding all the rest of the world as "barbarians,"
fit subjects for the exaction of tribute or for the imposition of the
bonds of actual slavery. During the middle ages there was a reaction
towards individualism as opposed to nationalism: but the entire system
of feudalism, with its clearly recognized conditions of over-lordship
and of vassaldom, gave expression, no less clearly than oriental
despotism and classical "democracy" had done, to the idea of individual
inequality; of divergence of moral and legal status based on natural
inheritance. Thus this idea, a reminiscence of barbarism, maintained its
dominance throughout the first period of civilization.
But gunpowder, marking the transition to the second period of
civilization, came as a great levelling influence. With its aid the
weakest peasant might prove more than a match for the most powerful
knight. Before its assaults the castle of the lord ceased to be an
impregnable fortress. And while gunpowder thus levelled down the power
of the mighty, the printing-press levelled up the intelligence, and
hence the power and influence of the lowly. Meantime the mariner's
compass opened up new territories beyond the seas, and in due course men
of lowly origin were seen to attain to wealth and power through
commercial pursuits, thus tending to break in upon the established
social order. In the colonial territories themselves all men were
subjected more or less to the same perils and dependent upon their own
efforts. Success and prominence in the community came not as a
birthright, but as the result of demonstrated fitness. The great lesson
that the interests of all members of a community are, in the last
analysis, mutual could be more clearly distinguished in these small
colonies than in larger and older bodies politic. Through various
channels, therefore, in the successive generations of this middle period
of civilization, the idea gained ground that intelligence and moral
worth, rather than physical prowess, should be the test of greatness;
that it is incumbent on the strong in the interests of the body politic
to protect the weak; and that, in the long run, the best interests of
the community are conserved if all its members, without exception, are
given moral equality before the law. This idea of equal rights and
privileges for all members of the community--for each individual "the
greatest amount of liberty consistent with a like liberty of every other
individual"--first found expression as a philosophical doctrine towards
the close of the 18th century; at which time also tentative efforts were
made to put it into practice. It may be said therefore to represent the
culminating sociological doctrine of the middle period of
civilization,--the ideal towards which all the influences of the period
had tended to impel the race.
It will be observed, however, that this ideal of individual equality
within the body politic in no direct wise influences the status of the
body politic itself as the centre of a localized civilization that may
be regarded as in a sense antagonistic to all other similarly localized
civilizations. If there were any such influence, it would rather operate
in the direction of accentuating the patriotism of the member of a
democratical community, as against that of the subject of a despot,
through the sense of personal responsibility developed in the former.
The developments of the middle period of civilization cannot be
considered, therefore, to have tended to decrease the spirit of
nationality, with its concomitant penalty of what is sometimes called
provincialism. The history of this entire period, as commonly presented,
is largely made up of the records of international rivalries and
jealousies, perennially culminating in bitterly contested wars. It was
only towards the close of the epoch that the desirability of free
commercial intercourse among nations began to find expression as a
philosophical creed through the efforts of Quesnay and his followers;
and the doctrine that both parties to an international commercial
transaction are gainers thereby found its first clear expression in the
year 1776 in the pages of Condillac and of Adam Smith.
But the discoveries that ushered in the third period of civilization
were destined to work powerfully from the outset for the breaking down
of international barriers, though, of course, their effects would not be
at once manifest. Thus the substitution of steam power for water power,
besides giving a tremendous impetus to manufacturing in general, mapped
out new industrial centres in regions that nature had supplied with coal
but not always with other raw materials. To note a single result,
England became the manufacturing centre of the world, drawing its raw
materials from every corner of the globe; but in so doing it ceased to
be self-supporting as regards the production of food-supplies. While
growing in national wealth, as a result of the new inventions, England
has therefore lost immeasurably in national self-sufficiency and
independence; having become in large measure dependent upon other
countries both for the raw materials without which her industries must
perish and for the foods to maintain the very life of her people.
What is true of England in this regard is of course true in greater or
less measure of all other countries. Everywhere, thanks to the new
mechanisms that increase industrial efficiency, there has been an
increasing tendency to specialization; and since the manufacturer must
often find his raw materials in one part of the world and his markets in
another, this implies an ever-increasing intercommunication and
interdependence between the nations. This spirit is obviously fostered
by the new means of transportation by locomotive and steamship, and by
the electric communication that enables the Londoner, for example, to
transact business in New York or in Tokio with scarcely an hour's delay;
and that puts every one in touch at to-day's breakfast table with the
happenings of the entire world. Thanks to the new mechanisms, national
isolation is no longer possible; globe-trotting has become a habit with
thousands of individuals of many nations; and Orient and Occident,
representing civilizations that for thousands of years were almost
absolutely severed and mutually oblivious of each other, have been
brought again into close touch for mutual education and betterment. The
Western mind has learned with amazement that the aforetime _Terra
Incognita_ of the far East has nurtured a gigantic civilization having
ideals in many ways far different from our own. The Eastern mind has
proved itself capable, in self-defence, of absorbing the essential
practicalities of Western civilization within a single generation. Some
of the most important problems of world-civilization of the immediate
future hinge upon the mutual relations of these two long-severed
communities, branched at some early stage of progress to opposite
hemispheres of the globe, but now brought by the new mechanisms into
daily and even hourly communication.
Modern humanism.
While the new conditions of the industrial world have thus tended to
develop a new national outlook, there has come about, as a result of the
scientific discoveries already referred to, a no less significant
broadening of the mental and spiritual horizons. Here also the trend is
away from the narrowly egoistic and towards the cosmopolitan view. About
the middle of the 19th century Dr Pritchard declared that many people
debated whether it might not be permissible for the Australian settlers
to shoot the natives as food for their dogs; some of the disputants
arguing that savages were without the pale of human brotherhood. To-day
the thesis that all mankind are one brotherhood needs no defence. The
most primitive of existing aborigines are regarded merely as brethren
who, through some defect or neglect of opportunity, have lagged behind
in the race. Similarly the defective and criminal classes that make up
so significant a part of the population of even our highest present-day
civilizations, are no longer regarded with anger or contempt, as beings
who are suffering just punishment for wilful transgressions, but are
considered as pitiful victims of hereditary and environmental influences
that they could neither choose nor control. Insanity is no longer
thought of as demoniac possession, but as the most lamentable of
diseases.
The changed attitude towards savage races and defective classes affords
tangible illustrations of a fundamental transformation of point of view
which doubtless represents the most important result of the operation of
new scientific knowledge in the course of the 19th century. It is a
transformation that is only partially effected as yet, to be sure; but
it is rapidly making headway, and when fully achieved it will represent,
probably, the most radical metamorphosis of mental view that has taken
place in the entire course of the historical period. The essence of the
new view is this: to recognize the universality and the invariability of
natural law; stated otherwise, to understand that the word
"supernatural" involves a contradiction of terms and has in fact no
meaning. Whoever has grasped the full import of this truth is privileged
to sweep mental horizons wider by far than ever opened to the view of
any thinker of an earlier epoch. He is privileged to forecast, as the
sure heritage of the future, a civilization freed from the last ghost of
superstition--an Age of Reason in which mankind shall at last find
refuge from the hosts of occult and invisible powers, the fearsome
galaxies of deities and demons, which have haunted him thus far at every
stage of his long journey through savagery, barbarism and civilization.
Doubtless here and there a thinker, even in the barbaric eras, may have
realized that these ghosts that so influenced the everyday lives of his
fellows were but children of the imagination. But the certainty that
such is the case could not have come with the force of demonstration
even to the most clear-sighted thinker until 19th-century science had
investigated with penetrating vision the realm of molecule and atom; had
revealed the awe-inspiring principle of the conservation of energy; and
had offered a comprehensible explanation of the evolution of one form of
life from another, from monad to man, that did not presuppose the
intervention of powers more "supernatural" than those that operate about
us everywhere to-day.
The stupendous import of these new truths could not, of course, make
itself evident to the generality of mankind in a single generation, when
opposed to superstitions of a thousand generations' standing. But the
new knowledge has made its way more expeditiously than could have been
anticipated; and its effects are seen on every side, even where its
agency is scarcely recognized. As a single illustration, we may note the
familiar observation that the entire complexion of orthodox teaching of
religion has been more altered in the past fifty years than in two
thousand years before. This of course is not entirely due to the
influence of physical and biological science; no effect has a unique
cause, in the complex sociological scheme. Archaeology, comparative
philology and textual criticism have also contributed their share; and
the comparative study of religions has further tended to broaden the
outlook and to make for universality, as opposed to insularity, of view.
It is coming to be more and more widely recognized that all theologies
are but the reflex of the more or less faulty knowledge of the times in
which they originate, that the true and abiding purpose of religion
should be the practical betterment of humanity--the advancement of
civilization in the best sense of the word; and that this end may
perhaps be best subserved by different systems of theology, adapted to
the varied genius of different times and divers races. Wherefore there
is not the same enthusiastic desire to-day that found expression a
generation ago, to impose upon the cultured millions of the East a
religion that seems to them alien to their manner of thought, unsuited
to their needs and less distinctly ethical in teaching than their own
religions.
Such are but a few of the illustrations that might be cited from many
fields to suggest that the mind of our generation is becoming receptive
to a changed point of view that augurs the coming of a new ethnic era.
If one may be permitted to enter very tentatively the field of prophecy,
it seems not unlikely that the great revolutionary invention which will
close the third period of civilization and usher in a new era is already
being evolved. It seems not over-hazardous to predict that the air-ship,
in one form or another, is destined to be the mechanism that will give
the new impetus to human civilization; that the next era will have as
one of its practical ideals the conquest of the air; and that this
conquest will become a factor in the final emergence of humanity from
the insularity of nationalism to the broad view of cosmopolitanism,
towards which, as we have seen, the tendencies of the present era are
verging. That the gap to be covered is a vastly wide one no one need be
reminded who recalls that the civilized nations of Europe, together with
America and Japan, are at present accustomed to spend more than three
hundred million pounds each year merely that they may keep armaments in
readiness to fly at one another's throats should occasion arise.
Formidable as these armaments now seem, however, the developments of the
not very distant future will probably make them quite obsolete; and
sooner or later, as science develops yet more deadly implements of
destruction, the time must come when communal intelligence will rebel at
the suicidal folly of the international attitude that characterized, for
example, the opening decade of the 20th century. At some time, after the
first period of cosmopolitanism shall be ushered in as a tenth ethnic
period, it will come to be recognized that there is a word fraught with
fuller meanings even than the word patriotism. That word is
humanitarianism. The enlightened generation that realizes the full
implications of that word will doubtless marvel that their ancestors of
the third period of civilization should have risen up as nations and
slaughtered one another by thousands to settle a dispute about a
geographical boundary. Such a procedure will appear to have been quite
as barbarous as the cannibalistic practices of their yet more remote
ancestors, and distinctly less rational, since cannibalism might
sometimes save its practiser from starvation, whereas warfare of the
civilized type was a purely destructive agency.
Equally obvious must it appear to the cosmopolite of some generation of
the future that quality rather than mere numbers must determine the
efficiency of any given community. Race suicide will then cease to be a
bugbear; and it will no longer be considered rational to keep up the
census at the cost of propagating low orders of intelligence, to feed
the ranks of paupers, defectives and criminals. On the contrary it will
be thought fitting that man should become the conscious arbiter of his
own racial destiny to the extent of applying whatever laws of heredity
he knows or may acquire in the interests of his own species, as he has
long applied them in the case of domesticated animals. The survival and
procreation of the unfit will then cease to be a menace to the progress
of civilization. It does not follow that all men will be brought to a
dead level of equality of body and mind, nor that individual competition
will cease; but the average physical mental status of the race will be
raised immeasurably through the virtual elimination of that vast company
of defectives which to-day constitutes so threatening an obstacle to
racial progress. There are millions of men in Europe and America to-day
whose whole mental equipment--despite the fact that they have been
taught to read and write--is far more closely akin to the average of the
Upper Period of Barbarism than to the highest standards of their own
time; and these undeveloped or atavistic persons have on the average
more offspring than are produced by the more highly cultured and
intelligent among their contemporaries. "Race suicide" is thereby
prevented, but the progress of civilization is no less surely
handicapped. We may well believe that the cosmopolite of the future,
aided by science, will find rational means to remedy this strange
illogicality. In so doing he will exercise a more consciously purposeful
function, and perhaps a more directly potent influence, in determining
the line of human progress than he has hitherto attempted to assume,
notwithstanding the almost infinitely varied character of the
experiments through which he has worked his way from savagery to
civilization.
Ethical evolution.
All these considerations tend to define yet more clearly the ultimate
goal towards which the progressive civilization of past and present
appears to be trending. The contemplation of this goal brings into view
the outlines of a vastly suggestive evolutionary cycle. For it appears
that the social condition of cosmopolite man, so far as the present-day
view can predict it, will represent a state of things, magnified to
world-dimensions, that was curiously adumbrated by the social system of
the earliest savage. At the very beginning of the journey through
savagery, mankind, we may well believe, consisted of a limited tribe,
representing no great range or variety of capacity, and an almost
absolute identity of interests. Thanks to this community of
interests,--which was fortified by the recognition of blood-relationship
among all members of the tribe,--a principle which we now define as "the
greatest ultimate good to the greatest number" found practical, even if
unwitting, recognition; and therein lay the germs of all the moral
development of the future. But obvious identity of interests could be
recognized only so long as the tribe remained very small. So soon as its
numbers became large, patent diversities of interest, based on
individual selfishness, must appear, to obscure the larger harmony. And
as savage man migrated hither and thither, occupying new regions and
thus developing new tribes and ultimately a diversity of "races," all
idea of community of interests, as between race and race, must have been
absolutely banished. It was the obvious and patent fact that each race
was more or less at rivalry, in disharmony, with all the others. In the
hard struggle for subsistence, the expansion of one race meant the
downfall of another. So far as any principle of "greatest good" remained
in evidence, it applied solely to the members of one's own community, or
even to one's particular phratry or gens.
Barbaric man, thanks to his conquest of animal and vegetable nature, was
able to extend the size of the unified community, and hence to develop
through diverse and intricate channels the application of the principle
of "greatest good" out of which the idea of right and wrong was
elaborated. But quite as little as the savage did he think of extending
the application of the principle beyond the bounds of his own race. The
laws with which he gave expression to his ethical conceptions applied,
of necessity, to his own people alone. The gods with which his
imagination peopled the world were local in habitat, devoted to the
interests of his race only, and at enmity with the gods of rival
peoples. As between nation and nation, the only principle of ethics that
ever occurred to him was that might makes right. Civilized man for a
long time advanced but slowly upon this view of international morality.
No Egyptian or Babylonian or Hebrew or Greek or Roman ever hesitated to
attack a weaker nation on the ground that it would be wrong to do so.
And few indeed are the instances in which even a modern nation has
judged an international question on any other basis than that of
self-interest. It was not till towards the close of the 19th century
that an International Peace Conference gave tangible witness that the
idea of fellowship of nations was finding recognition; and in the same
recent period history has recorded the first instance of a powerful
nation vanquishing a weaker one without attempting to exact at least an
"indemnifying" tribute.
But the citizen of the future, if the auguries of the present prove
true, will be able to apply principles of right and wrong without
reference to national boundaries. He will understand that the interests
of the entire human family are, in the last analysis, common interests.
The census through which he attempts to estimate "the greatest good of
the greatest number" must include, not his own nation merely, but the
remotest member of the human race. On this universal basis must be
founded that absolute standard of ethics which will determine the
relations of cosmopolite man with his fellows. When this ideal is
attained, mankind will again represent a single family, as it did in the
day when our primeval ancestors first entered on the pathway of
progress; but it will be a family whose habitat has been extended from
the narrow glade of some tropical forest to the utmost habitable
confines of the globe. Each member of this family will be permitted to
enjoy the greatest amount of liberty consistent with the like liberty of
every other member; but the interests of the few will everywhere be
recognized as subservient to the interests of the many, and such
recognition of mutual interests will establish the practical criterion
for the interpretation of international affairs.
Progress and efficiency.
But such an extension of the altruistic principle by no means
presupposes the elimination of egoistic impulses--of individualism. On
the contrary, we must suppose that man at the highest stages of culture
will be, even as was the savage, a seeker after the greatest attainable
degree of comfort for the least necessary expenditure of energy. The
pursuit of this ideal has been from first to last the ultimate impelling
force in nature urging man forward. The only change has been a change in
the interpretation of the ideal, an altered estimate as to what manner
of things are most worth the purchase-price of toil and self-denial.
That the things most worth the having cannot, generally speaking, be
secured without such toil and self-denial, is a lesson that began to be
inculcated while man was a savage, and that has never ceased to be
reiterated generation after generation. It is the final test of
progressive civilization that a given effort shall produce a larger and
larger modicum of average individual comfort. That is why the great
inventions that have increased man's efficiency as a worker have been
the necessary prerequisites to racial progress. Stated otherwise, that
is why the industrial factor is everywhere the most powerful factor in
civilization; and why the economic interpretation is the most searching
interpretation of history at its every stage. It is the basal fact that
progress implies increased average working efficiency--a growing ratio
between average effort and average achievement--that gives sure warrant
for such a prognostication as has just been attempted concerning the
future industrial unification of our race. The efforts of civilized man
provide him, on the average, with a marvellous range of comforts, as
contrasted with those that rewarded the most strenuous efforts of savage
or barbarian, to whom present-day necessaries would have been
undreamed-of luxuries. But the ideal ratio between effort and result has
by no means been achieved; nor will it have been until the inventive
brain of man has provided a civilization in which a far higher
percentage of citizens will find the life-vocations to which they are
best adapted by nature, and in which, therefore, the efforts of the
average worker may be directed with such vigour, enthusiasm and interest
as can alone make for true efficiency; a civilization adjusted to such
an economic balance that the average man may live in reasonable comfort
without heart-breaking strain, and yet accumulate a sufficient surplus
to ensure ease and serenity for his declining days. Such, seemingly,
should be the normal goal of progressive civilization. Doubtless mankind
in advancing towards that goal will institute many changes that could by
no possibility be foretold, but (to summarize the views just presented)
it seems a safe augury from present-day conditions and tendencies that
the important lines of progress will include (1) the organic betterment
of the race through wise application of the laws of heredity; (2) the
lessening of international jealousies and the consequent minimizing of
the drain upon communal resources that attends a military regime; and
(3) an ever-increasing movement towards the industrial and economic
unification of the world. (H. S. WI.)
AUTHORITIES.--A list of works dealing with the savage and barbarous
periods of human development will be found appended to the article
ANTHROPOLOGY. Special reference may here be made to E.B. Tylor's
_Early History of Mankind_ (1865), _Primitive Culture_ (1871) and
_Anthropology_ (1881); Lord Avebury's _Prehistoric Times_ (new
edition, 1900) and _Origin of Civilization_ (new edition, 1902); A.H.
Keane's _Man Past and Present_ (1899); and Lewis H. Morgan's _Ancient
Society_ (1877). The earliest attempt at writing a history of
civilization which has any value for the 20th-century reader was F.
Guizot's in 1828-1830, a handy English translation by William Hazlitt
being included in Bohn's Standard Library under the title of _The
History of Civilization_. The earlier lectures, delivered at the Old
Sorbonne, deal with the general progress of European civilization,
whilst the greater part of the work is an account of the growth of
civilization in France. Guizot's attitude is somewhat antiquated, but
this book still has usefulness as a storehouse of facts. T.H. Buckle's
famous work, _The History of Civilization in England_ (1857-1861),
though only a gigantic unfinished introduction to the author's
proposed enterprise, holds an important place in historical literature
on account of the new method which it introduced, and has given birth
to a considerable number of valuable books on similar lines, such as
Lecky's _History of European Morals_ (1869) and _Rise and Influence of
Rationalism in Europe_ (1865). J.W. Draper's _History of the
Intellectual Development of Europe_ (1861) undertook, from the
American stand-point, "the labour of arranging the evidence offered by
the intellectual history of Europe in accordance with physiological
principles, so as to illustrate the orderly progress of civilization."
Its objective treatment and wealth of learning still give it great
value to the student. Since the third quarter of the 19th century it
may be said that all serious historical work has been more or less a
history of civilization as displayed in all countries and ages, and a
bibliography of the works bearing on the subject would be coextensive
with the catalogue of a complete historical library. Special mention,
however, may be made of such important and suggestive works as C.H.
Pearson's _National Life and Character_ (1893); Benjamin Kidd's
_Social Evolution_ (1894) and _Principles of Western Civilization_
(1902); Edward Eggleston's _Transit of Civilization_ (1901); C.
Seignobos's _Histoire de la civilisation_ (1887); C. Faulmann's
_Illustrirte Culturgeschichte_ (1881); G. Ducoudray's _Histoire de la
civilisation_ (1886); J. von Hellwald's _Kulturgeschichte_ (1896); J.
Lippert's _Kulturgeschichte der Menschheit_ (1886); O. Henne-am-Rhyn's
_Die Kultur der Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft_ (1890); G.
Kurth's _Origines de la civilisation moderne_ (1886), &c. The vast
collection of modern works on sociology, from Herbert Spencer onwards,
should also be consulted; see bibliography attached to the article
SOCIOLOGY. The historical method on which practically all the articles
of the present edition of the _Ency. Brit._ are planned, makes the
whole work itself in essentials the most comprehensive history of
civilization in existence.
CIVIL LAW, a phrase which, with its Latin equivalent _jus civile_, has
been used in a great variety of meanings. _Jus civile_ was sometimes
used to distinguish that portion of the Roman law which was the proper
or ancient law of the city or state of Rome from the _jus gentium_, or
the law common to all the nations comprising the Roman world, which was
incorporated with the former through the agency of the praetorian
edicts. This historical distinction remained as a permanent principle of
division in the body of the Roman law. One of the first propositions of
the Institutes of Justinian is the following:--"Jus autem civile vel
gentium ita dividitur. Omnes populi qui legibus et moribus reguntur
partim suo proprio, partim communi omnium hominum jure utuntur; nam quod
quisque populus ipsi sibi jus constituit, id ipsius civitatis proprium
est, vocaturque jus civile quasi jus proprium ipsius civitatis. Quod
vero naturalis ratio inter omnes homines constituit, id apud omnes
peraeque custoditur, vocaturque jus gentium quasi quo jure omnes gentes
utuntur." The _jus gentium_ of this passage is elsewhere identified with
_jus naturale_, so that the distinction comes to be one between civil
law and natural or divine law. The municipal or private law of a state
is sometimes described as civil law in distinction to public or
international law. Again, the municipal law of a state may be divided
into civil law and criminal law. The phrase, however, is applied _par
excellence_ to the system of law created by the genius of the Roman
people, and handed down by them to the nations of the modern world (see
ROMAN LAW). The civil law in this sense would be distinguished from the
local or national law of modern states. The civil law in this sense is
further to be distinguished from that adaptation of its principles to
ecclesiastical purposes which is known as the canon law (q.v.).