The thorough and careful study of the mental life of the savage, supported by the results of anthropogeny and ethnography, has in the course of the last forty years decided the issue of this struggle between the conflicting theories of the origin of civilization. The older theory of degeneration, based on religious beliefs, and so preferred by theologians and theosophists, declared that man--the "image of God"--was created originally with perfect bodily and mental powers, and only fell away from his high estate after the original sin. On this view the present savages are degenerate descendants of the first godlike men. (In tropical lands the anthropoid apes are in similar fashion regarded by the natives as degenerate branches of their own stem!) Although this Biblical degeneration theory is still taught in most of our schools, and even supported by a few mystic philosophers, it had lost all scientific countenance before the end of the nineteenth century. It is now replaced by the modern theory of evolution, which was represented by Lamarck, Goethe, and Herder a century ago, and raised to a predominant position in ethnography by Darwin and Lubbock. It has taught us that human civilization is the outcome of a long and gradual process of evolution, covering thousands of years. The civilized races of our time have arisen from less civilized races, and these in turn from lower, until we reach the savage races which show no trace of civilization. Ethnologists distinguish as a separate class the races which are found midway between the civilized peoples and the savages. We shall deal with their classification and characteristics later on (chapter xvii.). These races show some advance on the artistic instinct which we find in a slight degree even among the savages at times; moreover, their animal curiosity develops into human curiosity, and raises the question of the causes of phenomena, the germ of all science. Civilized races, which occupy the next stage to these, are raised above them by the formation of larger states and a greater division of labor. The specialization of the various groups of workers and the greater ease of maintenance permit a further development of art and science. To these groups belong, of living races, the majority of the Mongolians, and the greater part of the inhabitants of Europe and Asia in ancient and mediæval times. The great ancient civilizations of China, Southern India, Asia Minor, Egypt, and afterwards of Greece and Italy, show not only a great development of art and science, but also a concern for legislation, religious worship, education of the young, and the spread of knowledge by written books.