In this final chapter it were well to look at the Social Abyss in its widest aspect, and to put certain questions to Civilisation, by the answers to which Civilisation must stand or fall.

For instance, has Civilisation bettered the lot of man?
"Man," I use in its democratic sense, meaning the average man.

So the question re-shapes itself: _Has Civilisation bettered the lot of the average man_?
Let us see.

In Alaska, along the banks of the Yukon River, near its mouth, live the Innuit folk.

They are a very primitive people, manifesting but mere glimmering adumbrations of that tremendous artifice, Civilisation.