Pre-Historic Phases; Or, Introductory Essays on Pre-Historic Arch Ology

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1872 Excerpt: ... ON THE DEGRADED PHASE. An objection has been made to the view, that races in a savage and barbarous phase are in their original state; that they are in reality in a degraded and degenerate stage, having previously been civilized. On carefully examining these phases, we shall find that they can be easily distinguished, as they are distinct, and belong to different epochs of civilization. It is unquestionable that many races and nations have retrograded and relapsed into barbarism, and, in some instances, have returned to their primitive savage state. The degeneration of race is the necessary result of the law of the cycle of development; all things run through their cyclical course. They have their rise, maturity, decline, and decay; the races which are now degenerated and degraded had once attained the height of civilization, passing through all the successive phases of civilization in the ascending scale. On reaching the culminating point of civilization, it is the destiny of all nations and races to decline, decay, and return to their original barbarous state. Nations, like individuals in their extreme old age, return to the early condition of childhood. The savage and barbarous stage is the first phase, the degraded, the last phase in the cycle of development of nations and races. The races in the degraded phase can be easily distinguished from the races in their state of barbarism. We know the history of the degenerate races, we have evidences of their having once attained a state of civilization; we have proofs of it in the remains of the architecture, sculpture, of these races, and in their historical records. One of the most important examples of a degenerate race, are the Fellahs of Egypt. This degraded, ignorant, filthy class of Mohammedan Fellahs, ..