2 o8 PROBLEMS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION 



later, again, they took to agriculture. They formed a settled 

 government, became nations, in fact, instead of tribes, and when 

 they had reached this stage fighting came only at intervals at 

 rather short intervals no doubt at first, but it ceased to be an 

 incessant business and wild beasts were no longer a perpetual 

 The danger. Men now had to be equal to playing two roles. During 

 of P eace their occupation was to till the soil or be idle ; when war 

 peace came they had to be good fighters. Now, in some parts of the 

 world the two roles were far more incongruous than in others. 

 In tropical or sub-tropical countries there was little for the 

 warrior to do during peace. In some lands that are thought 

 highly favoured, you have only to scratch the ground and scatter 

 the seed, and you will have a crop. Not much food is wanted, 

 as you do not have to be constantly keeping up your temperature 

 by using up tissue. You need only a little fuel, just enough for 

 cooking. Clothing is not required except for decency. In some 

 cases patient industry may be wanted for the making of tanks, 

 for raising water from a river for irrigation purposes, or even 

 for ploughing and manuring a small patch when population is 

 crowded. But there is little demand for combative energy. On 

 the other hand, resignation is often much in request ; there has 

 to be much patient waiting for the Monsoon or the rising of the 

 Nile. And if the boon prayed for does not come, then the 

 attitude of the Oriental whose favourite word is Kismet seems 

 to be not inappropriate. Patient submission is the virtue of 

 some regions, as rebellious energy is that of others. Rudyard 

 Kipling, penetrating as usual to the "true inwardness" of 

 things, has said of the Indian Ryot : 



" His life is a long-drawn question 

 Between a crop and a crop." 



This enables us to understand the enervating effect civilisation 

 very generally has upon barbarians. They occupy, as a rule, 

 the sunnier regions of the earth. Stop their fighting, and you 

 put them in an environment in which sloth is the quality most in 

 demand. The European is indignant that the black man will 

 not work. He himself is energetic, because he has many wants 



