e people of the
towns were more cultured than the people of the country.

It happened, too, that the townspeople received Christianity before the
people of the country, hence heathens were the people who dwelt out on
the heath, away from town. This local idea became a world idea when
all non-Christian peoples were called uncivilized. It is a fatal error
for an individual, neighborhood, tribe, or nation to assume superiority
to the extent that it fails to recognize good qualities in others. One
should not look with disdain upon a tribe of American Indians, calling
them uncivilized because their material life is simple, when in reality
in point of honor, faithfulness, and courage they excel a large
proportion of the races assuming a higher civilization.

_The Material Evidences of Civilization Are All Around Us_.--Behold
this beautiful valley of the West, with its broad, {6} fertile fields,
yielding rich harvests of corn and wheat, and brightened by varied
forms of fruit and flower. Farmhouses and schoolhouses dot the
landscape, while towns and cities, with their marts of trade and busy
industries, rise at intervals. Here are churches, colleges, and
libraries, indicative of the education of the community; courthouses,
prisons, and jails, which speak of government, law, order, and
protection. Here are homes for the aged and weak, hospitals and
schools for the defective, almshouses for the indigent, and
reformatories for the wayward. Railroads bind together all parts of
the nation, making exchange possible, and bringing to our doors the
products of every clime. The telephone and the radio unite distant
people with common knowledge, thought, and sentiment. Factories and
mills line the streams or cluster in village and city, marking the busy
industrial life. These and more mark the visible products of
civilization.

But civilization is something more than form, it is spirit; and its
evidence may be more clearly discerned in the co-operation of men in
political organization and industrial life, by their united action in
religious worship and charitable service, in social order and
educational advancement. Observe, too, the happy homes, with all of
their sweet and hallowed influences, and the social mingling of the
people searching for pleasure or profit in their peaceful, harmonious
association. Witness the evidences of accumulated knowledge in
newspapers, periodicals, and books, and the culture of painting,
po