The Evolution of Culture, and Other Essays
Part 11
34. Back-plate and Breast-plate of the Bugo Dyaks, armed with the scales of the Pangolin. (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.)
IX.
35. Piece of Bark from Tahiti, studded with pieces of coco-nut shell. (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.)
VIII.
36. Fragment of Scale-Armour of horn found at Pompeii. [_Pictorial Gallery of Arts_, vol. i. figs. 10, 61.]
VIII.
37. Piece of Scale-Armour, made of the hoofs of some animal, from some part of Asia; said to be from Japan. Meyrick, l. c., vol. i. pl. iii.
VIII.
38. An ancient Stone Figure in Scale Armour. Cuming, _Journ. Archaeol. Assoc._, vol. iii. p. 31.
IX.
39. Back-piece and Breast-piece of Armour from the Sandwich Islands, composed of seals’ teeth. (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.; pres. by H. Shelley, Esq.)
VIII.
40. Egyptian Suit of Scale-Armour. Rawlinson, _Herodotus_ (1862), vol. ii. p. 65, fig. iii; Wilkinson (Birch), _Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians_ (1878), fig. 53 _a_.
IX.
41. Two Scales of Egyptian Armour, enlarged. Rawlinson, l. c., fig. iv.
IX.
42. Japanese Armour, composed of chain, plate, and enclosed quilted plates. (_a_) Left arm; (_b_) Greaves. (Author’s Coll.)
IX.
43. _a._ Chinese Suit of Armour, of cotton, having iron scales attached to the inside, _b._ Iron Helmet of the same suit (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.; presented by Capt. Sir E. Belcher. R.N.)
IX.
44. A portion of the iron scales attached to the inner side of the above suit.
IX.
45. Breast-piece of ‘Jazerine’ Armour of iron scales, xv-xvi cent.; inner side. (Author’s Coll.) Cf. Grose, _Treatise on Ancient Armour_ (London, 1786), p. 15, ‘Jazerant’: cf. pl. xxxiii. 3; Meyrick. vol. ii. pl. lvi.
IX.
46. ‘Brigandine’ composed of large iron scales on the outside, probably of the same date as the above; left by the Venetians in the armoury of Candia on the surrender of the island to the Turks in 1715. (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.; presented by Lt.-Col. Patrick Campbell, R.A.)
IX.
47. Horn of the Rhinoceros. (Author’s Coll.)
X.
48. Skull and Tusks of the Walrus. (Author’s Coll.)
X.
49. Weapon of the Sword-Fish; scale 1/2 inch to a foot. (Author’s Coll.)
X.
50. Spear of the Narwhal; scale 1/2 inch to a foot. (Author’s Coll.)
X.
51. Section, showing part of the timber of the ship _Fame_, where it was pierced by the narwhal in the South Seas, through 2-1/2-inch oak. (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.; presented by Lt. A. T. Tulloch, R.A.)
X.
52. Esquimaux Spear, from Greenland, armed with the spear of the narwhal. 1/50. (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.)
X.
53. Esquimaux Spear in the form of a fish, having fore-shaft composed of a narwhal-tusk, inserted so as to represent the tusk of the animal; scale 1/2 inch to a foot. (Author’s Coll.)
X.
54. Esquimaux Lance, pointed with a walrus-tooth. 1/20. (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.)
X.
55. Esquimaux Tomahawk or Pickaxe, headed with a walrus-tooth. 1/20. (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.)
X.
56. Arrow-head, probably from South America, headed with the point of a deer’s horn. (British Museum, Christy Collection.)
X.
57. War-club of the Iroquois, called _Ga-ne-ú-ga-o-dus-ha_ or ‘Deer-horn War-Club.’ Lewis Morgan, _League of the Iroquois_ (Rochester, N.Y., 1851), p. 363.
X.
58. Club of the North American Indians, with a point of iron. 1/20. (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.; presented by T. Hoblyn, Esq.)
X.
59. Arrow, from S. America, armed with the weapon of the ray, probably _Trygon hystrix_. 1/2. (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.)
X.
60. _a._ Spine of _Balistes capriscus, Cuv._, erect. Yarrell, _British Fishes_ (2nd ed., London, 1841), vol. ii, p. 472. _b._ Horn of _Cottus diceraus, Pall_. Cuvier, _Animal Kingdom_ (1827), s. v. _c._ Horn of _Naseus fronticornis, Lac._ Cuvier, l. c.
X.
61. Spear of the _Limulus_ or ‘King Crab.’
X.
62. Arrow, armed with the spine of the _Diodon_. 1/4. (Author’s Coll.)
X.
63. ‘Khandjar’ or Indian Dagger, composed of the horn of the buffalo, having the natural form and point. 1/10. (Author’s Coll.)
X.
64. ‘Khandjar’ of the same form, with metal blade and ivory handle. 1/10. (Author’s Coll.)
X.
65. ‘Khandjar’ of the same form, having both blade and handle of iron. The handle is ornamented with the figures of a bird and some small quadruped. 1/10. (Author’s Coll.)
X.
66. Dagger formed of the horn of the ‘sasin,’ or common antelope. 1/10. (Author’s Coll.)
X.
67. Dagger like fig. 66, but with the points armed with metal. 1/10 (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.)
X.
68. Dagger like figs. 66, 67, but composed entirely of metal, with a shield for the hand. Similar shields are sometimes attached to daggers like those in figs. 66, 67. 1/12. (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.)
X.
69. Weapon composed of the horn of the antelope; steel-pointed; supposed to be that used by the Fakirs in India. (Author’s Coll.)
X.
70. Sword formed of the serrated blade of the saw-fish from New Guinea. (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.)
XI.
71-74. Weapons from the Pacific, edged with sharks’ teeth. The teeth near the point are placed points forward; the remainder with the points towards the handle. Two methods of fastening the teeth are shown: _a._ in grooves; _b._ lashed between two strips of wood. (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.)
XI.
75. Implement from New Zealand, armed with sharks’ teeth. (British Museum.)
XI.
76. Esquimaux Knife, from Davis Strait, armed with pieces of meteoric iron, (British Museum.)
XI.
77. Knife, from Greenland, armed with pieces of iron along the edge. (British Museum, Christy Collection.)
XI.
78-80. Mexican ‘Maquahuitl.’ Lord Kingsborough, _Antiquities of Mexico_ (1830-48), vol. i (numerous examples on pl. x-xv: fig. 79 = No. 1478).
XI.
81-82. Spear and Knife, from Australia, armed with pieces of obsidian, or rock-crystal. (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.)
XI.
83. Arrow-point of bone, armed with a row of sharp flint flakes on each side. (Museum of Prof. Nilsson, at Lund, in Sweden.) Reduced to 1/2 from the figure in Wilde, l. c., ‘Animal Materials,’ p. 254.
XI.
84. Arrow-point like fig. 83. (Copenhagen Museum.) _Illustr. Cat. of the Copenhagen Museum._
XI.
85. Arrow-point of hollow bone, from S. America, the hollow of the bone being filled with poison. (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.; Author’s Coll.)
XI.
86. Dagger of an Italian Bravo, with grooves and holes to contain poison; the handle represents a monk in the act of supplication. (Author’s Coll.)
XI.
87 _a._ Scottish Dirk, pierced with holes along the back and sides. Along the back of the blade runs a groove eight inches long, in which holes are pierced that communicate with lateral holes on the side of the blade. (Author’s Coll.)
XI.
87 _b._ ‘Couteau-de-Chasse,’ with two grooves on each side near the back of the blade, which is pierced through with holes. (Author’s Coll.)
XI.
88. Arrow-head, of iron, with a hole near the point for poison; from S. America. (Author’s Coll.)
XI.
89. Sting of the Bee, serrated or multi-barbed: after F. Huber in _Jardine’s Naturalist’s Library_, Entomology vi. _Bees_ (Edinb., 1840), p. 40.
XI.
90. Point of Bushman’s Arrow, barbed with an iron head, which is constructed to come off in the wound. (Author’s Coll.)
XI.
91. Malay Blowpipe-arrow, iron-headed; similarly constructed. 1/4. (Author’s Coll.)
XI.
92. Arrow of the wild tribes of Assam, copper-headed, and similarly constructed. 1/4. (Author’s Coll.)
XI.
93. Arrow-head of the Shoshones of North America, of flint; constructed to come off in the wound. Schoolcraft, l. c., vol. i. pp. 212-3, pl. lxxvi. 5.
XI.
94. Arrow-point of the Macoushie Indians of S. America; similarly constructed. 1/4. (Author’s Coll.; pres. by Rev. J. G. Wood.)
XI.
95. Arrow-heads of flint, from the north of Ireland. 1/4. (Author’s Coll.)
XI.
96. Part of the Blade of an Italian Dagger, serrated and pierced. Full size. Meyrick (Skelton), l. c., vol. ii. pl. cxiii. 14.
XI.
FOOTNOTES:
[13] A Lecture delivered at the Royal United Service Institution, Friday, June 28, 1867; illustrated by specimens from the Museum of the Institution: and published in the _Journal of the R. U. S. Inst._ xi (1867).
[14] Beechey, _Voyage to the Pacific_ (London, 1831), vol. i. p. 298; Oldfield, ‘Aborigines of Australia,’ _Trans. Ethno. Soc._, N. S. (London, 1865), vol. iii. p. 227.
[15] Oldfield, ‘On the Aborigines of Australia,’ _Trans. Ethno. Soc._, N.S., vol. iii. pp. 261-7.
[16] Meyrick (Skelton), _Engraved Illustrations of Ancient Arms_, &c. (1830), vol. ii. pl. cxlix. 11.
[17] Klemm, _Werkzeuge und Waffen_ (Sondershausen, 1858), p. 159.
[18] Turner, _Nineteen Years in Polynesia_ (London, 1861), p. 262.
[19] Williams, _Fiji and the Fijians_ (London, 1858), vol. i. pp. 78-9.
[20] Crawfurd, _History_ (Edinburgh, 1820), vol. i. p. 224.
[21] Tylor, _Anahuac_ (London, 1861), p. 70.
[22] Hdt. vii. 69: Rawlinson, _Herodotus_, vol. iv (2nd ed., 1862, p. 55).
[23] Petherick, _Egypt, the Soudan, and Central Africa_ (Edinb. and London, 1861), p. 360.
[24] Le Sieur de Folard, _Nouvelles Découvertes sur la Guerre_ (Paris, 1724), p. 48.
[25] In adopting the nomenclature of phrenology, I am not to be understood as advocating strictly the localization of the faculties which phrenology prescribes. The mind doubtless consists of a congeries of faculties, and phrenology affords the best classification of them that has yet been devised.
[26] Pope, _Essay on Man_, Epistle iii. 172-80.
[27] Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_ (London, 1829), vol. i. pp. 302-3.
[28] Crawfurd, _History of the Indian Archipelago_ (1820), vol. i. pp. 113-4.
[29] Beckman, _History of Inventions_ (London, 1814), pp. 503-4.--Cock-fighting.
[30] Stanley, _History of Birds_ (London, 1848), p. 389.
[31] Darwin, _Origin of Species_ (London, 1859), p. 88.
[32] Williamson, _Oriental Field Sports_ (London, 1807), p. 94.
[33] Swainson, _Habits and Instincts of Animals_ (London, 1840), p. 142.
[34] Thuc. i. 5 (but what Thucydides says is, that they were the last to discard it.--ED.).
[35] Beechey, _Voyage to the Pacific_ (London, 1831), vol. i. p. 248.
[36] Dobrizhoffer, _An Account of the Abipones_ (from the Latin; London, 1822), vol. i. p. 262; ii. 361.
[37] Barth, _Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa_ (London, 1857), vol. iii. p. 198.
[38] Low, _Sarawak_ (London, 1848), p. 328.
[39] Pigafetta’s _Voyage Round the World_, Pinkerton, vol. ix. p. 349.
[40] William de Rubruquis, _Travels into Tartary and China in 1253_; Pinkerton (London, 1811), vol. viii. p. 89.
[41] _An Historical Relation of the Kingdom of Chile_, by Alonso de Ovalle, of the Company of Jesus, 1649 (London, 1752), p. 71.
[42] Herodotus, vii. 70; Meyrick’s _Ancient Armour_, vol. i. Introd. p. iv.
[43] Herodotus, iv. 189; Meyrick’s _Ancient Armour_, vol. i. Introd. p. iii.
[44] Herodotus, vii. 65 εἵματα ... ἀπὸ ξύλων πεποιημένα.
[45] Duarte Barbosa, _The Coasts of East Africa and Malabar_, translated from the Spanish, by the Hon. H. E. Stanley (Hakluyt Society, 1866), p. 55. Since publication, the translator has ascertained that the authorship of this work should be ascribed to Magellan.
[46] The _Saturnia mylitta_ is the caterpillar from which the Tusseh-silk is obtained; the cocoon is of an oval shape when suspended upon the tree, and of exceedingly firm texture; it is figured in Sir Wm. Jardine’s _Naturalist’s Library_ (Edinb. 1841), _Entomology_, vol. vii. pl. xiv. 2, pp. 146-53. The _Eriodendron anfractuosum, D.C._, is an Indian Bombax. The woolly cotton which envelops the seed is remarkable for its softness, and is much and deservedly esteemed for making cushions and bedding, owing to its freedom from any tendency to become lumpy and uneven by getting impacted into hard knots. Various attempts have been made to fabricate it into cloth, but hitherto without success, except as a very loose material, fit only for quilting muffs, for which it is superior to cotton or woollen stuffs, the looseness of its texture rendering it an excellent non-conductor, whilst at the same time it is extremely light.--Wight, _Illustrations of Indian Botany_ (Madras, 1840), vol. i. p. 68; Roxburgh, _Flora Indica_ (Serampore, 1832), vol. iii. p. 165 (= _Bombax pentandrum_). Both the caterpillar and the plant are found in the jungle in the neighbourhood of Seringapatam. For the identification of the vegetable substance, I am indebted to W. Carruthers, Esq., F.L.S., British Museum.
[47] Schoolcraft, _Information concerning the History, &c., of the Indian Tribes of the U. S. A._ (Philadelphia, 1851-9), part iii. p. 69.
[48] Meyrick, l. c., vol. i. Introduction.
[49] Denham and Clapperton, _Travels in Northern and Central Africa_ (London, 1826), p. 328 (Denham).
[50] See _Critical Enquiry into Ancient Armour_, by Sir Samuel R. Meyrick, vol. iii. p. 21, and pl. lxviii.
[51] Bollaert, ‘Observations on the Indian Tribes of Texas,’ _Journ. Ethno. Soc._, vol. ii. pp. 262-83.
[52] Du Chaillu, _Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa_ (London, 1861), p. 80.
[53] Homer, _Iliad_, vii. 244-8.
[54] Casalis, _The Basutos_ (London, 1861), pp. 135-6.
[55] Barth, l. c., vol. i. p. 355.
[56] Meyrick (Skelton), l. c, pl. cxli (text).
[57] Bosman, _Guinea_, Pinkerton (1811), vol. xvi. p. 414.
[58] Barth, l. c., vol. ii. pp. 410, 526; ii. 116 (plate); Denham and Clapperton, l. c., p. 166 (Denham).
[59] Meyrick, l. c., vol. i. Introd. pp. i-ii.
[60] Meyrick, l. c., vol. i. Introd. p. xxiv.
[61] At Fernando Po.--Cuming, ‘Weapons and Armour of Horn,’ _Journal of Archaeological Association_ (London, 1848), vol. iii. p. 30.
[62] Fig. 32 is from a rough sketch taken about two years ago, and has no pretension to accuracy of detail.
[63] Meyrick, l. c, vol. i. pl. iv. 10.
[64] Schoolcraft, _Information concerning the History, &c., of the Indian Tribes of the U. S. A._ (Philadelphia, 1851-9), vol. iii. p. 67.
[65] Grant, _Walk across Africa_ (London, 1864), p. 47.
[66] Smith, _Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Antiq._, s. v.; Meyrick, l. c., vol. i. Introd. p. xiv; Amm. Marc. xvii. 12. 2; Pausanias, i. 21. 6; Tac. _Hist._ i. 79 (_praeduro corio_).
[67] Kitto, _Pictorial Bible_ (London, 1838-9), note to 1 Sam. xvii.
[68] Cuming, _Journal of the Archaeological Association_, vol. iii. p. 31.
[69] Kitto, _Pictorial Bible_, note to 1 Sam. xvii.
[70] Skene, ‘On the Albanians,’ _Journ. Ethno. Soc._, vol. ii. pp. 159-81.
[71] Casalis, _The Basutos_ (London, 1861), p. 172.
[72] Maunder, _Treasury of Natural History_ (London, 1862), p. 573.
[73] Williamson, _Oriental Field Sports_ (London, 1807), p. 46.
[74] Atkinson, _Oriental and Western Siberia_ (London, 1858), p. 495.
[75] Williamson, _Oriental Field Sports_ (London, 1807), p. 94.
[76] Thompson, _Passions of Animals_ (1851), p. 225. The American hunter avails himself of this peculiarity to entrap the crane by presenting the barrel of his firelock to the animal; supposing it to be an eye, the crane immediately strikes at the hole, and fixes its beak firmly in the muzzle.
[77] Beechey, _Voyage to the North Pole_ (London, 1843), pp. 93-4.
[78] Bates, _Naturalist on the Amazons_ (3rd ed. London, 1873), p. 230.
[79] _Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China, Siam, Cambodia, and Laos in 1858-9_, by the late M. Henri Mouhot (London, 1864), vol. ii. p. 147.
[80] It is to be observed that this is not the rhinoceros’s usual mode of attack.
[81] Cranz, _Historie von Grönland_ (2nd ed. Barby and Leipzig, 1770), p. 196, pl. v. 8.
[82] Beechey, _Voyage to the North Pole_ (London, 1843), p. 252.
[83] Cuming, _Journal of the Archaeological Association_, vol. iii. p. 25.
[84] Ibid., p. 26.
[85] Swainson, _Habits and Instincts of Animals_ (London, 1840), p. 141.
[86] Gregory, ‘Expedition to the North-west Coast of Australia,’ _Royal Geographical Society’s Journal_, vol. xxxii (1862), p. 417.
[87] Denham and Clapperton, _Travels_ (1826), p. 20 (Denham).
[88] Hind, _Narrative of the Canadian Exploring Expedition_ (London, 1860), vol. i. p. 316.
[89] Captain John Smith, _Sixth Voyage to Virginia_ (1606); Pinkerton (1811), vol. xii. p. 35.
[90] Cuming, _Journal of the Archaeological Association_, vol. iii. p. 27.
[91] Turner, _Nineteen Years in Polynesia_ (London, 1861), p. 276.
[92] Beechey, _Voyage to the Pacific_ (London, 1831), vol. i. p. 143.
[93] Williams, _Fiji and the Fijians_ (London, 1858), vol. i. p. 57.
[94] Wilson, _Pellew Islands_ (ed. Keate, London, 1788), pl. v, fig. 1, p. 310.
[95] Klemm, _Werkzeuge und Waffen_ (1858), p. 50.
[96] Owen, _Comp. Anatomy and Physiology of Vertebrates_ (1846), vol. ii. 1. p.
[97] Klemm, l. c., p. 31 (‘die Schwanzstachel eines Roches,’ i.e. ‘the caudal spine of a ray.’--ED.).
[98] Wilson, _Prehistoric Man_ (London, 1862), vol. i. p. 146.
[99] Cuming, _Journal of the Archaeological Association_, vol. iii. p. 26.
[100] The probability of the aboriginal man having derived his first lessons from this source may be judged of by the accounts given by travellers of the effects produced by the large thorns of trees in South Africa, of which there is a good account in Routledge’s _Natural History of Man_, by Rev. J. G. Wood (1868-70), vol. i. p. 235. Large animals are said to be frequently destroyed, and even to have impaled themselves, upon the large, strong spines of the thorny Acacia. Throughout Central Africa a pair of tweezers for extracting thorns is an indispensable requisite in the equipment of every native.
[101] Beechey, _Voyage to the Pacific_ (London, 1831), vol. i. pp. 47-8.
[102] Strabo, p. 155.
[103] Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_ (London, 1829), vol. i. chap. viii.
[104] Clapperton, _Travels_, p. 58.
[105] I exclude from this category all nippers, cross-bills, and prehensile implements.
[106] Jardine’s _Naturalist’s Library_ (Edinb. 1843): _Ichthyology_ (Hamilton), vol. vi, part 2, p. 335.
[107] Choris, _Voyage Pictoresque autour du Monde_ (Paris, 1822), ‘Isles Radak,’ pl. ii. 1 and 4.
[108] Cook, _Third Voyage_ (London, 1842), vol. ii. p. 251.
[109] Klemm, l. c., pp. 63-4; Wilkes, _United States Exploring Expedition_ (Philadelphia, 1845), vol. v. ch. ii. pp. 49, 79.
[110] King, ‘The Industrial Arts of the Esquimaux,’ _Journ. Ethno. Soc._ (1848), vol. i. p. 290.
[111] Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, vol. ii. p. 497.
[112] Nieuhoff, ‘Travels in Brazil’; Pinkerton (1813), vol. xiv. p. 874.
[113] Tylor, _Anahuac_, p. 332, Appendix.
[114] Wilson, _Prehistoric Man_ (1862), vol. i. pp. 226, 227.
[115] Lloyd Stephens, _Incidents of Travel in Central America_, p. 59.
[116] Wilson, _Prehistoric Man_ (1862), vol. i. pp. 226, 227.
[117] Lewis Morgan, _The League of the Ho-De-No-Sou-Nee or Iroquois_ (Rochester, N.Y., 1851), p. 359.
[118] Thunberg, _Travels in Europe, Africa, and Asia_, 1770-9 (3rd ed., London, 1795), vol. i. p. 156; ii. p. 162; Livingstone, _Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa_ (London, 1857), p. 171.
[119] Meyrick (Skelton), _Ancient Arms and Armour_, vol. ii. pl. cxiii, fig. 14, cf. fig. 13.
[120] _Times_ newspaper, Dec. 24, 1866.
[121] Humboldt, _Aspects of Nature_ (London, 1849), vol. i. pp. 25, 203-4.
[122] Klemm, l. c., p. 53.
[123] ‘On the Wild Tribes in the Interior of the Malay Peninsula,’ by Père Bourien. _Trans. Ethno. Soc._, N.S., vol. iii (1865), p. 78.
[124] Darwin, _Journal of Researches into Nat. Hist. and Geology_ (London, 1845), p. 8.
[125] Hall, C. F., _Life with the Esquimaux_ (London, 1864), vol. ii. pp. 329-30.
PRIMITIVE WARFARE
II
ON THE RESEMBLANCE OF THE WEAPONS OF EARLY MAN, THEIR VARIATION, CONTINUITY, AND DEVELOPMENT OF FORM.[126]
_General Remarks._
In June, 1867, I had the honour of reading a paper at this Institution, which has since been published in the _Journal_, the object of which was to point out the resemblance which exists between the weapons of savages and early races and the weapons with which nature has furnished animals for their defence.
In continuation of the same subject, my present communication will relate to the resemblance to each other of the weapons of races sometimes widely separated, and of which the connexion, if it ever existed, has long since been consigned to obscurity. I shall endeavour to show, how in these several localities, which are so remote from one another, the progress of form has been developed upon a similar plan, and, though to all appearance independently, yet that under like conditions like results have been produced; and that the weapons and implements of these races will sometimes be found to bear so close a resemblance to each other, as often to suggest a community of origin, where no such common origin can have existed, unless at the very remotest period.
We shall thus be brought to the consideration of the great problem of our day, viz. the origin of mankind, or rather the origin of the human arts; for the question of man’s origin, whether he was himself created or developed from some prior form, whether since the period of his first appearance he has by variation separated into distinct races, or whether the several races of mankind were separately created, are questions which, however closely allied, do not of necessity form part of our present subject. It has to deal solely with the origin of the arts, and more particularly with the art of war, which in the infancy of society belonged to a condition of life so constant and universal as to embrace within its sphere all other arts, or at least to be so intimately connected with them as to require the same treatment; the tool and the weapon being, as I shall presently show, often identical in the hands of the primaeval savage.
These prefatory remarks are necessary because it will be seen that the general observations I am about to offer on the subject are fully as applicable to the whole range of the industrial arts of mankind as to the art of war. My illustrations, however, will be taken exclusively from weapons of war.
Is not the world at the present time, and has it not always been, the scene of a continuous progress? Have not the arts grown up from an obscure origin, and is not this growth continuing to the present day?
This is the question which lies at the very threshold of our subject, and we must endeavour to treat it by the light of evidence alone, apart from all considerations of a traditional or poetic character.
I do not propose here to enter into a disquisition upon the functions of the human mind. But it must I think be admitted, that if man possessed from the first the same nature that belongs to him at the present time, he must at the commencement of his career in this world have been destitute of all creative power. The mind has never been endowed with any creative faculty. The only powers we possess are those of digesting, adapting, and applying, by the intellectual faculties, the experience acquired through the medium of the senses. We come into the world helpless and speechless, possessing only in common with the brutes such instincts as are necessary for the bare sustenance of life under the most facile conditions; all that follows afterwards is dependent purely on experience.