Let us first throw a rapid glance at
the various stages which the civilisation and industry of Man have
gone through before arriving at their present condition. To make clear
these phases we might either follow the state of civilisation in any
given country by tracing back the course of centuries, or else at a
given epoch find out in different parts of the earth all the stages of
human evolution. The savage men of to-day are not further advanced in
their evolution than our own ancestors who have now gone to fossil.
However it may be, Man, at first frugivorous, as his dentition shows
as well as his zoological affinities, in consequence of a famine of
fruit or from whatever other cause, gradually began to nourish himself
with the flesh of other animals. To search for this fleeing prey
developed in him the art of hunting and fishing. His intelligence,
still feeble, was entirely concentrated on this one point: to seize on
an animal and to feed on it, although neither his nails nor his teeth
nor his muscles make it natural to him. To hunt, to fish, to defend
his territory against the wild beasts who attacked it and himself, to
drive back tribes of his fellows who would diminish his provisions,
these were the first rudiments of the industry of Man. Having become
more skilful, he obtained in an expedition more game than he could
consume at once; he then kept near him living beasts in order to
sacrifice them when hunger came. His reserve of animals increased;
they became accustomed to live near him; and he took care of his
larder. A flock was gradually constituted, and the owner learnt to
profit from all the resources which it offered him, from milk to wool.
Henceforth he became economical with his beasts, and moved about in
order to procure for them abundance of grass and water. He was still
always hunting and fighting; but there were now accessory industries,
and he was especially occupied in the domestication of animals. Then
it happened that he acquired a taste for a graminaceous grain--corn.
To seek the blades one by one is not a very fruitful labour, and
decidedly troublesome. Man collected a supply of them, cultivated
them, possessed fields which he sowed and harvested. He was henceforth
obliged to renounce his herds, which had become immense; for he could
not leave the soil where his corn was ripening, if he wished to gather
it himself, and his cattle were lacking pasture. The number of beasts
diminished; bread had kille