308 SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE ORGANISM 



takes, and which I myself take in history in spite of this 

 unsatisfactory state of things ? 



CUMULATIONS IN HUMAN HISTORY 



Let us begin our analytical studies of the value and the 

 meaning of human history, by considering some opinions 

 which deserve the foremost place in our discussion, 

 not as being the first in time, but as being the first in 

 simplicity. I refer to the views of men like Buckle, Taine, 

 and Lamprecht, and especially Lamprecht, for he has tried 

 the hardest to justify theoretically what he regards the 

 only scientific aim of history to be. If we may make use 

 of our logical scheme of the three possible aspects of 

 history, it is clear from the beginning that the history of 

 mankind, as understood by the three authors we have 

 named, but most particularly by Lamprecht, is neither a 

 mere enumeration nor a true evolution, but that it has to 

 do with cumulations, in the clearest of their possible forms. 

 The processes of civilisation among the different peoples 

 are in fact to be compared logically with the origin of 

 volcanoes or mountain-ranges in Japan, or in Italy, or in 

 America, and show us a typical series of consecutive 

 phases, as do these. There exists, for instance, in the 

 sphere of any single civilisation an economic system, founded 

 first on the exchange of natural products, and then on 

 money. There are, or better, perhaps, there are said to be, 

 characteristic phases succeeding one another in the arts, such 

 as the " typical," the " individualistic," and the " subjective " 

 phases. Any civilisation may be said to have its " middle 

 ages," and so on. All these are " laws " of course in the 



