Excerpt from The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, Vol. 11: January to June, 1870 Three civilizations, occurring in the three families into which mankind is usually divided, have now been exhibit 'ed, two of them with some detail, at dates anterior to that which the popular chronology has fixed for the commence ment of the peopling of the world. These civilizations were high compared with the state of human tribes yet on the earth. The people were agricultu rists, and well practised in the common arts of life. They had a variety of do mesticated animals; indeed, but few animals have within the historical period been added to the list. They clothed themselves with a variety of fabrics, dwelt in houses and in towns, protecting the latter by fortifications; they had speculated on the order of the spiritual world, and evolved religions; on the order of the material world, and evolv ed bodies of doctrine, which we should call sciences. They differed from one another in language, religion, physical characters, and social arrangements; but in this they agreed, that they had left a state of barbarism far in the rear. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.