THE STAGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT.
We are, indeed, but in the beginning of this period, but its conquests have been rapid and its lines of development arc already clearly marked out. We may look securely forward to the time when improved methods of agriculture and transportation will render impossible any general famine, and will permit the aggregation of mankind hi indefinite numbers ; marriage, already monogamous, will be on entirely equal terms, and woman will be held in all respects entitled to the rights and privileges of the other sex ; by the study of comparative and philosophic grammar, language will be brought closer and closer in accordance with the pro cesses of logical thought ; the industrial arts will no longer be experi ments, but, prosecuted under the demonstrable laws of science and with the knowledge of the fundamental unity and intimate correlation of all forms of force, will win conquests over nature which at present it would be temerity to estimate ; the fine arts, guided by purified canons of the beautiful, will minister more fully even than in ancient Greece to the ennobling pleasures of life ; with the recognition of the equality of all men before the law, and the right of every people to govern itself, the forms of monarchy and aristocracy will yield to republican governments ; international law and arbiters will do away with wars and the necessity of maintaining standing armies ; and, filially, in religious matters the lines drawn by sects and dogmatism will disappear, and, whatever the organization of local denominations, all will recognize that the -only article of faith essential to a true religion is that so admirably worded by the Chevalier Bunsen : " A belief in a universal order, in which the True is the only Good, and the Good is the only True." Aforgan's Subdivisions.—These are the main stages in the psycholog ical evolution of the human race. Some writers, as Mr. Lewis H. Mor
gan, have attempted to introduce yet more minute divisions, separating, for instance, the status of savagery into three subdivisions, the first cha racterized by an ignorance of fire and of fishing, the second by a know ledge of these arts, the third by the discovery of the bow and arrow. His remaining divisions all have reference to the growth of industrial arts. We have already pointed out that it is incorrect to select any one element of culture as the common measure of all ; moreover, it is now generally recognized that man knew the use of fire even in the late Tertiary ; and as for the bow and arrow, it was a local invention, it being the opinion of some able antiquaries that the Peruvians did not know it. Hence Mr. Morgan's classification is both inadequate and incorrect.
Chronological Conchtsions.—Many calculations have been ventured as to the relative length of these stadia of human progression. The results have been widely diverse, but we may take that of the eminent French antiquary, Gabriel de Mortillet, as representing approximately the mean of the several estimates. All agree that the first or Palwolithic Age was very much the longest. The deposit of alluvium by rivers and the ero sion of their channels have been the chronometers most relied upon. This method, applied to Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa, gives the following figures Years.
From the date of the oldest stone implements to the close of the Palm°Ethic Age From the beginning of the Neolithic Age until the dawn of history 12,000 From the dawn of history to the present time 6.000 Total 24o,000 Of course this is intended merely as a rough approximation, but it is probably as accurate as observations at present allow, and is not altogether wide of the mark.