76 THE SPLENDOUR OF GREECE 



stagnation. This is not difficult to understand. 

 There was no more a " genius for conservatism " in 

 China than a genius for morality in Judaea, or a genius 

 for law and organization in Rome. But there was 

 a very real isolation from other civilizations. Once 

 a high culture was developed in China, it had no 

 contacts with other high cultures until modern times, 

 apart from temporary contact with Rome about 

 100 b.c. and with India at a later date. The map 

 explains the conservatism of China. It is nonsense 

 to say that there were "principles of progress" in 

 European culture which were lacking in Chinese. 



It was much the same with India. The fully 

 developed civilization, which was able to produce 

 Buddha, just as China produced Kung-fu-tse, in the 

 sixth century B.C., had no stimulating contact with 

 equal cultures, as all the Western civilizations had. 

 For a time, after the invasion by Alexander the 

 Great, India was quickened by Greek influence, and 

 there was considerable fresh progress. But the 

 collapse of Western civilization after the fall of Greece 

 and Rome cut it off once more, and India remained 

 unprogressive. 



These general remarks must suffice for what we 

 may call the outlying civilizations of the earth, and 

 we must return to the main stream of human develop- 

 ment. So far we have been dealing with Asiatics, 

 and this fact of civilization being so overwhelmingly 

 Asiatic for ages led some to form a dreamy theory of 

 the " genius of Asia" and the " wisdom of the East." 

 The discovery of Crete rather disturbed this shallow 

 theory. The curious thing is that people who love 

 these pieces of verbiage always regard themselves as 

 "profound," and look upon the man who consults 



