Civilization, Vol. 1

Excerpt from Civilization, Vol. 1: An Historical Review of Its Elements The present work makes no pretense to be a history of civilization, in the ordinarily accepted sense of the term, but is offered rather as an outline view of its elements, with some attempt to set forth the philosophy of human progress, and indicate the evolutionary steps by which the world of man has passed upward from primitive savagery to modern enlightenment. The field covered is a broad one; each of the topics treated would have made a volume in itself, if handled with any width of historical illustration, and it has been necessary, while seeking to omit no subject of importance, to deal with all concisely. Each topic has been considered separately, so as to form, to some extent, a distinct treatise. This was an essential resultant of the nature of the subject. Civilization, though a grand whole, is made up of many discrete parts. Originally these were closely combined, simplicity of relations being...