THE DOCTRINE OF NATURAL SELECTION. 23 



istence. In those early days war was perhaps the most powerful 

 means of forcing men to combined action, and might therefore have 

 been necessary for the ultimate development of civilization. Freedom 

 of opinion was then a positive evil, for it would lead to independent 

 action, the very thing it was most essential to get rid of. In early 

 times isolation was an advantage, in order that these incipient societies 

 might not be broken up by intermixture, and it was only after a large 

 number of such little groups, each with its own idiosyncrasies, habits, 

 and beliefs, had been formed, that it became advantageous for them to 

 meet to intermingle or to struggle together, and the stronger to drive 

 out or exterminate the weaker. Out of the great number of petty 

 tribes thus formed, only a few had the qualities which led to a further 

 advancement. The rest were either exterminated or driven out into 

 remote and inaccessible or inhospitable districts, and some of those 

 are the " savages " which still exist on the earth, serving as a measure 

 of the vast progress of the human race. Yet even these never show 

 us the condition of the primitive man ; they are men who advanced up 

 to a certain point and then became stationary : 



"Their progress was arrested at various points; but nowhere, not even in 

 the hill-tribes of India, not even in the Andaman Islands, not even in the sav- 

 ages of Terra del Fnego, do we find men who have not got some way. They 

 have made their little progress in a hundred different ways; they have framed 

 with infinite assiduity a hundred curious habits ; they have, so to say, screwed 

 themselves into the uncomfortable corners of a complex life, which is odd and 

 dreary, but yet is possible. And the corners are never the same in any two 

 parts of the world. Our record begins with a thousand unchanging edifices, 

 but it shows traces of previous building. In historic times there has been but 

 little progress, in prehistoric times there must have been much." 



Again our author shows how valuable must have been the institu- 

 tion of caste in a certain stage of progress. It established the divis- 

 ion of labor, led to great perfection in many arts, and rendered gov- 

 ernment easy. Caste nations would at first have a great advantage 

 over non-caste nations, would conquer them, and increase at their ex- 

 pense. But a caste nation at last becomes stationary ; for a habit of 

 action and a type of mind which it can with difficulty get rid of are 

 established in each caste. When this is the case, non-caste nations 

 soon catch them up, and rapidly leave them far behind. 



This outline will give some idea of the way in which Mr. Bagehot dis- 

 cusses an immense variety of topics connected with the progress of so- 

 cieties and nations, and the development of their distinctive peculiarities. 

 The book is somewhat discursive and sketchy, and it contains many 

 statements and ideas of doubtful accuracv, but it shows an abundance 

 of ingenious and original thought. Many will demur to the view that 

 mere accident and imitation have been the origin of marked national 

 peculiarities; such as those which distinguish the German, Irish, 

 French, English, and Yankees : " The accident of some predominant 



