Recent investigations of the representative ceremonial rites of the aboriginal peoples of Australasia and of North and South America have yielded a remarkably rich fund of information on the causes and conditions which operated in prehistoric eras in developing the mental, moral, and physical sciences.

Some of the most romantic stories ever developed by the human intellect are to be found in recent scientific works dealing with the history and principles of the tribal customs, ceremonies, and religious rites of primitive peoples. The early chapters in the history of man's mental development and the evolution of science from distant origins in mystic forces, through magic and necromancy to religion and philosophy, must give abundant pleasure to all thoughtful persons by showing how it came that the high state of civilization now attained was brought about by slow processes, operating through immense periods of time and blossoming only during the past two or three thousand years. A study of these stories cannot fail to show how intimately science has been associated with religion, why every normal individual is essentially religious, and why the continuation of our civilization, and the very existence of the human race, are absolutely contingent upon the recognition of the moral laws, in the future as in the past. The history of science establishes the fact that moral sanctions, which require religious ceremonies to keep them vital, are the essential bases of human progress.

CHAPTER II✦

PRIMITIVE MAN AND EARLY CIVILIZATIONS

The development of scientific history has not followed a uniform course. Progress has been rhythmic. There has been always a reaction coming in the steps of brilliant discoveries. Periods of feverish experimental activities have been succeeded by others during which little apparent progress was made.

Such dull intervals seem to have been necessary for developing, formulating, classifying, and testing the innumerable details and inferences that the discoveries of the active periods produced.

While mankind in general has contributed to the total of our intellectual treasures, some races have been more active in this way than others. For this reason it is advisable to briefly survey the more recent discoveries about the ancestors of existing peoples.

Indo-Malaysia, parts of central Asia, and the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia are variously credited with having been the cradle of the human race. It should be understood, however, that we are only permitted to speak authoritatively of existing races, because the land forms of the earth have undergone such remarkable changes that we can know little definitely about the earlier periods of human history. For the purposes of the history of science, while bearing in mind these qualifying suggestions, we may accept the statement that man's ancestors originated in proximity to India.

It was around the waters of the Persian Gulf that the earliest known civilizations arose. The people who founded them came from central Asia. They had reached a considerable degree of culture, which suggests that they themselves came from earlier centers of civilization.

The study of prehistoric antiquity is termed archæology. Its principal periods have been divided, for convenience, into the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages. Each of these is distinguished by the substances used for tools. In the Stone Age men used stone spearheads, arrows, and knives, whereas in the Iron Age similar things were made of iron or copper.

The science of mankind is known as Anthropology. It deals with the innumerable steps in the evolution of mankind from remote periods, and with the primitive development of the arts, sciences, and religion. Yet it is one of the youngest of the sciences.

One of its essential teachings is that heredity and racial predispositions play, and always have played, more important parts in man's evolution, and in the development of civilization, than environment and education.

Hereditary tendencies, such as the religious, moral, and æsthetic instincts have been indispensable in preserving and developing all the races of mankind.

Moral discipline has been the chief factor in self-control, and therefore in civilization. It is because the moral sense has proved so beneficial to the human race, and is the most powerful of our instinctive desires, that mankind always has been and must be religious. It controls man's knowledge, desires, and will, and has dominated the race since our early ancestors began to think.

When we recognize this fact we can readily see that anything which tends to oppose the moral or ethical sanctions, or detract from religious beliefs, is injurious to civilization and human progress. The histories of religion, ethics, and æsthetics plainly develop the rôles which have been played by moral self-discipline in the protection and development of mankind, as well as of knowledge and science.

The moral control of individuals acts also upon society generally, and upon whole racial and national groups. The ethical ideals assist each individual mind to realize its own end and at the same time tend to influence the tribal and social mind to attain a common end. This great moral, instinctive force, which has played such an immensely valuable part in developing civilization and science, is known as the human social and national conscience. It acts both individually and collectively.

European races have been divided into classes corresponding to the prevailing cephalic indices. The longheads are grouped as the Nordic, or Baltic, subspecies, because they were formerly numerous around the Baltic countries. People of this group are distinguished by tall statures, fair skin and hair, good physique, and light colored eyes. These peoples include the Scandinavians, Anglo-Saxon, and certain important Teutonic groups, as well as Asiatic peoples who are known as the Aryans.

The most important rôles in the development of modern civilization, art, industry, and science have been played by representatives of the Nordics.

The Iberian, or Mediterranean, subspecies, ranks next in importance. The peoples of this great racial division originally occupied the countries between the northern Atlantic coast of Africa and the confines of the areas of the Nordics around the northern provinces of France. They spread down the Mediterranean and over large areas in Asia. Their skulls are long, but differ from those of the Nordics in their absolute size. Their stature is lower, and weaker than that of the Nordics, while their hair, eyes, and skin are dark or black. The Welsh, the Moors, and the early Greeks are chiefly classed with the Mediterranean group. The Carthaginians, Phœnicians, Egyptians, and Etrurians were members of it.

The roundheads comprise the Alpine subspecies. This is the strongest numerical group to-day. It is characterized by small round heads, short bodies, dark hair, and dark eyes. It is of Asiatic origin and includes the Slavs, modern Greeks, Italians, Germans, Austrians, Swiss, the pre-Nordic Irish, French, and Belgians. The first Alpine invasion of Europe began about 10,000 B. C. There were many subsequent ones through the plateaus of Asia Minor, the Balkans, and valley of the Danube. They reached England about 1800 B. C., and formed small colonies in Ireland, the descendants of which now call themselves Celts and are clearly distinguished by the characteristic Alpine indices. This race is now so well acclimatized in Europe that most of its Asiatic traces have been lost, and its round skulls and dark eyes and hair are the only reminders of its Mongolian origin.

Members of each of these three great racial groups of mankind have throughout the ages contributed to the development of the sciences and arts. The Nordics began to appear in European history as agricultural tribes, speaking Aryan languages, like Celtic and Welsh, who swept down from the north and pushed the earlier settlers back through their irresistible arms, which were made of bronze and later of iron. The earlier settlers were still furnished with arms and implements of the Stone Age.

There was a much older intellectual people than the Nordics settled in Europe. The people of this race, about whom we have learned through recent archæological researches, are known as the Cro-Magnons. They lived between 25,000 and 10,000 B. C. Their skulls were distinguished from those of the Nordics by their pronounced cheek-bones and broad faces. Their culture, as their favorable cephalic index would suggest, was of a high character. Numerous drawings and art works of theirs, which have been preserved, place them among the world's superior peoples.

Soon after the settlement of the Cro-Magnons in Europe, and their intermarriage with the earlier settlers, their physical development and stature began to decline. They were finally absorbed and destroyed by the inferior peoples among whom they dwelled. Their disappearance, like that of the ancient Greeks, who appear to have been the most intellectual people the world ever produced, shows how the upward development of human physical and intellectual qualities is constantly injured by the contacts of superior and inferior races.