ruction,
and could not hand down the knowledge they did not themselves possess.
The magic wires of intelligence passed through their villages, but they
did not know how to work them.

The cunning artificers of the cities all departed, and everything fell
quickly into barbarism; nor could it be wondered at, for the few and
scattered people of those days had enough to do to preserve their lives.
Communication between one place and another was absolutely cut off, and
if one perchance did recollect something that might have been of use, he
could not confer with another who knew the other part, and thus between
them reconstruct the machine. In the second generation even these
disjointed memories died out.

At first it is supposed that those who remained behind existed upon the
grain in the warehouses, and what they could thresh by the flail from
the crops left neglected in the fields. But as the provisions in the
warehouses were consumed or spoiled, they hunted the animals, lately
tame and as yet but half wild. As these grew less in number and
difficult to overtake, they set to work again to till the ground, and
cleared away small portions of the earth, encumbered already with
brambles and thistles. Some grew corn, and some took charge of sheep.
Thus, in time, places far apart from each other were settled, and towns
were built; towns, indeed, we call them to distinguish them from the
champaign, but they are not worthy of the name in comparison with the
mighty cities of old time.

There are many that have not more than fifty houses in the enclosure,
and perhaps no other station within a day's journey, and the largest are
but villages, reckoning by antiquity. For the most part they have their
own government, or had till recently, and thus there grew up many
provinces and kingdoms in the compass of what was originally but one.
Thus separated and divided, there came also to be many races where in
the first place was one people. Now, in briefly recounting the principal
divisions of men, I will commence with those who are everywhere
considered the lowest. These are the Bushmen, who live wholly in the
woods.

Even among the ancients, when every man, woman, and child could exercise
those arts which are now the special mark of nobility, _i.e._ reading
and writing, there was a degraded class of persons who refused to avail
themselves of the benefits of civilization. They obtained their food by
begging, wandering along the highway