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The Descent of Man

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extinction, believed that changed habits <strong>of</strong> life,<br />

consequent on the advent <strong>of</strong> Europeans, induces<br />

much ill health. He lays, also, great stress<br />

on the apparently trifling cause that the natives<br />

become "bewildered and dull by the new life<br />

around them; they lose the motives for exertion,<br />

and get no new ones in their place." (35.<br />

Sproat, 'Scenes and Studies <strong>of</strong> Savage Life,'<br />

1868, p. 284.)<br />

<strong>The</strong> grade <strong>of</strong> their civilisation seems to be a<br />

most important element in the success <strong>of</strong> competing<br />

nations. A few centuries ago Europe<br />

feared the inroads <strong>of</strong> Eastern barbarians; now<br />

any such fear would be ridiculous. It is a more<br />

curious fact, as Mr. Bagehot has remarked, that<br />

savages did not formerly waste away before the<br />

classical nations, as they now do before modern<br />

civilised nations; had they done so, the old moralists<br />

would have mused over the event; but<br />

there is no lament in any writer <strong>of</strong> that period<br />

over the perishing barbarians. (36. Bagehot,

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