A History of Science — Volume 1Williams, Henry Smith
History
A History of Science — Volume 1
Williams, Henry Smith
Science -- History
5. Turning from the consideration of the body to its mental complement,
we are forced to admit that here, also, our primitive man must have
made certain elementary observations that underlie such sciences as
psychology, mathematics, and political economy. The elementary emotions
associated with hunger and with satiety, with love and with hatred, must
have forced themselves upon the earliest intelligence that reached the
plane of conscious self-observation. The capacity to count, at least
to the number four or five, is within the range of even animal
intelligence. Certain savages have gone scarcely farther than this;
but our primeval ancestor, who was forging on towards civilization, had
learned to count his fingers and toes, and to number objects about him
by fives and tens in consequence, before he passed beyond the plane of
numerous existing barbarians. How much beyond this he had gone we
need not attempt to inquire; but the relatively high development of
mathematics in the early historical period suggests that primeval man
had attained a not inconsiderable knowledge of numbers. The humdrum
vocation of looking after a numerous progeny must have taught the
mother the rudiments of addition and subtraction; and the elements of
multiplication and division are implied in the capacity to carry on
even the rudest form of barter, such as the various tribes must have
practised from an early day.
As to political ideas, even the crudest tribal life was based on
certain conceptions of ownership, at least of tribal ownership, and the
application of the principle of likeness and difference to which we have
already referred. Each tribe, of course, differed in some regard from
other tribes, and the recognition of these differences implied in
itself a political classification. A certain tribe took possession of a
particular hunting-ground, which became, for the time being, its home,
and over which it came to exercise certain rights. An invasion of this
territory by another tribe might lead to war, and the banding together
of the members of the tribe to repel the invader implied both a
recognition of communal unity and a species of prejudice in favor of
that community that constituted a primitive patriotism. But this unity
of action in opposing another tribe would not prevent a certain rivalry
of interest between the members of the same tribe, which would show
itself more and more prominently as the tribe increased in size. The
association of two or more persons implies, always, the ascendency of
some and the subordination of others. Leadership and subordination are
necessary correlatives of difference of physical and mental endowment,
and rivalry between leaders would inevitably lead to the formation of
primitive political parties. With the ultimate success and ascendency
of one leader, who secures either absolute power or power modified in
accordance with the advice of subordinate leaders, we have the germs of
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