Prodigality is much more natural to man than thrift.  The savage is the greatest of spendthrifts, for he has no forethought, no to-morrow.  The prehistoric man saved nothing.  He lived in caves, or in hollows of the ground covered with branches.  He subsisted on shellfish which he picked up on the seashore, or upon hips and haws which he gathered in the woods.  He killed animals with stones.  He lay in wait for them, or ran them down on foot.  Then he learnt to use stones as tools; making stone arrow-heads and spear-points, thereby utilizing his labour, and killing birds and animals more quickly.

The original savage knew nothing of agriculture.  It was only in comparatively recent times that men gathered seeds for food, and saved a portion of them for next year’s crop.  When minerals were discovered, and fire was applied to them, and the minerals were smelted into metal, man made an immense stride.  He could then fabricate hard tools, chisel stone, build houses, and proceed by unwearying industry to devise the manifold means and agencies of civilization.

The dweller by the ocean burnt a hollow in a felled tree, launched it, went to sea in it, and fished for food.  The hollowed tree became a boat, held together with iron nails.  The boat became a galley, a ship, a paddle-boat, a screw steamer, and the world was opened up for colonization and civilization.

Man would have continued uncivilized, but for the results of the useful labours of those who preceded him.  The soil was reclaimed by his predecessors, and made to grow food for human uses.  They invented tools and fabrics, and we reap the useful results.  They discovered art and science, and we succeed to the useful effects of their labours.

All nature teaches that no good thing which has once been done passes utterly away.  The living are ever reminded of the buried millions who have worked and won before them.  The handicraft and skill displayed in the buildings and sculptures of the long-lost cities of Nineveh, Babylon, and Troy, have descended to the present time.  In nature’s economy, no human labour is altogether lost.  Some remnant of useful effect continues to reward the race, if not the individual.

The mere material wealth bequeathed to us by our forefathers forms but an insignificant item in the sum of our inheritance.  Our birthright is made up of something far more imperishable.  It consists of the sum of the useful effects of human skill and labour.  These effects were not transmitted by learning, but by teaching and example.  One generation taught another, and thus art and handicraft, the knowledge of mechanical appliances and materials, continued to be preserved.  The labours and efforts of former generations were thus transmitted by father to son; and they continue to form the natural heritage of the human race—­one of the most important instruments of civilization.