636 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



are injustice, bitterness, and rancor. Upon this law does the de- 

 velopment of society depend, and in the aggressive forces are 

 found the elements of progress, while in the submitting and re- 

 sisting forces are found the elements of stability. To the aggres- 

 sive features of Western civilizations is due that rapid progress 

 which has heretofore proved wanting in stability, while to the 

 well-defined social conditions of Eastern caste is due the stability 

 of the civilizations of the Orient, which have for ages lacked the 

 elements of progress. Science formulates the theory, but not 

 until taught by bitter experience does man seem to understand 

 that by union and interaction we secure a resultant equal to the 

 sum of our several activities, while by conflict and counteraction 

 forces are neutralized, or at best the resultant can be no greater 

 than the difference between the several effects. 



The lowest races respect the rights of property among them- 

 selves. Mr. Darwin says of the Fuegians : " If any present was 

 designed for one canoe, and it fell near another, it was invariably 

 given to the right owner." It goes without saying that from the 

 docks of one of our populous cities, in the midst of civilization, 

 no such respect for the rights of others would be observed. But, 

 in the state of ungovernable passion which characterizes the sav- 

 age, is it not evident that a disregard of the personal rights of 

 others would soon end in practical extermination, while by re- 

 specting the rights of others each gains security for his own ? 



It is idle to speculate as to the occasion of this nascent trust 

 or confidence on which all societies rest alike in their infancy of 

 ungovernable violence and in the maturer developments of the 

 restraints and social order of our present civilization. It is true 

 the stinted trusts of the undeveloped limit the duties they create, 

 while the extended trusts of the more evolved imply the creation 

 of new duties coextensive with those trusts. 



Let us, for illustration, suppose that two savages, in pursuit 

 of the same game, cross paths ; immediately they turn upon each 

 other; being evenly matched, neither gains the advantage, but 

 the game escapes, their activities being lost in the attempt to 

 thwart each other. With frequent repetitions they ultimately 

 realize that to work with is more profitable than to work against 

 each other, and the first step toward civilization has been taken. 



It is reasonable to suppose that the first associations of men 

 were intermittent and capricious, the bond of union being often 

 severed at the will of either as personal advantage seemed to dic- 

 tate, and that the discernment of the permanent blessings of social 

 union was of slow and uncertain growth, and not until a long 

 period had elapsed would the trust of either be so complete as to 

 make treachery possible ; for this augmenting trust is of mutual 

 growth or dissolution, the former removing fears and stimulating 



