those were used by such, for savages are the poorest of
the poor. It would be very strange if these same utensils, no more no
less, were used by beings whose discerning instincts made them in
comparison altogether rich. Such a being would know how to manage
without such things, or if it wanted any, would know how to make better.

And, secondly, on the moral side we know that the pre-historic age was
one of much licence, and the proof is that in that age descent was
reckoned through the female only, just as it is among the lowest
savages. 'Maternity,' it has been said, 'is a matter of fact, paternity
is a matter of opinion;' and this not very refined expression exactly
conveys the connection of the lower human societies. In all
slave-owning communities--in Rome formerly, and in Virginia
yesterday--such was the accepted rule of law; the child kept the
condition of the mother, whatever that condition was; nobody inquired
as to the father; the law, once for all, assumed that he could not be
ascertained. Of course no remains exist which prove this or anything
else about the morality of pre-historic man; and morality can only be
described by remains amounting to a history. But one of the axioms of
pre-historic investigation binds us to accept this as the morality of
the pre-historic races if we receive that axiom. It is plain that the
wide-spread absence of a characteristic which greatly aids the
possessor in the conflicts between race and race probably indicates
that the primary race did not possess that quality. If one-armed people
existed almost everywhere in every continent; if people were found in
every intermediate stage, some with the mere germ of the second arm,
some with the second arm half-grown, some with it nearly complete; we
should then argue--'the first race cannot have had two arms, because
men have always been fighting, and as two arms are a great advantage in
fighting, one-armed and half-armed people would immediately have been
killed off the earth; they never could have attained any numbers. A
diffused deficiency in a warlike power is the best attainable evidence
that the pre-historic men did not possess that power.' If this axiom be
received it is palpably applicable to the marriage-bond of primitive
races. A cohesive 'family' is the best germ for a campaigning nation.
In a Roman family the boys, from the time of their birth, were bred to
a domestic despotism, which well prepared them for a subjection in
a