EVOLUTION AND RELIGION 



account of the complexity of their organization, and 

 the Hottentots still persist; sociologically, there is no 

 doubt which was the more perfect type. 



Again, if it were a general law that homogeneity 

 changes to heterogeneity, then all primitive stocks 

 should progress if sufficient time be given. The con- 

 trary is the rule. Only a few primitive stocks have 

 shown the power to advance to a high civilization and 

 the rule for such peoples is, with few exceptions, that 

 they reach a maximum and then decay. In the great 

 majority of cases, progress continues only so far as to 

 produce simple tribal communities which are able to 

 withstand the adversities of their environment. They 

 develop a language, use fire and a few simple tools, 

 and live under a primitive government and religion. 

 This condition once attained they remain stationary. 

 Unless they fall under the constraint of a foreign 

 dominating stock we see no signs that they would 

 ever advance to a complex or heterogeneous social 

 state. Such was the history of the American Indians 

 and of the Negroes and such would have been, pos- 

 sibly, the history of the Gauls if the Romans had not 

 constrained them to adopt the progressive civiliza- 

 tion of Rome. 



Fiske also tried to trace the changes of society by 

 the law of natural selection. Here, again, we have the 

 attempt to apply a general law to fit the history of the 

 few peoples which were able to develop themselves 

 by their own innate power. We shall not press the 



1:365] 



