CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS IN CIVILISATION 341 



factor ; that in the early times water offered the best or the 

 only good highway for the traveller and the trader with his 

 merchandise, whereas now the railway has made land travelling, 

 if not so cheap, yet far quicker than travelling by sea. In short, 

 intercourse, whether hostile or friendly, whether in the way of 

 war or trade, is that which starts and maintains the movement of 

 progress. 



We may now refer to what Mr Walter Bagehot has told us in The fetters 



r . .of custom 



his Physics and Politics. In a very early stage or human society, 

 it is very difficult to get men to obey, and without obedience no 

 great success is possible for a tribe or nation. At this stage, 

 therefore, men must be bound by the fetters of custom. The 

 savage is the slave of custom, a fact which reference to any 

 good work on primitive man will make clear. At one time 

 the taboo system resulted in an entangling network of absurdities 

 which went near to strangling society altogether, and which may 

 have been fatal to many tribes who could not throw it off. But 

 without taboo, would marriage and the rights of property have 

 been respected ? The fetters of custom were necessary at an 

 early stage. It was equally necessary at a later day to shake off 

 the many ridiculous accretions which as time goes on incrust an 

 ancient custom, or even to shake off the ancient custom itself. 

 The idea that 



" One good custom may corrupt the world," 



is not a mere poetic fancy. But what is more likely to make 

 men see the absurdity of their own customs than intercourse 

 with other tribes whose customs are different ? And what but 

 war, and the dire necessity it brings with it, is able to stir the 

 inertia of conservatism ? 



Referring now to the map of progress in early times I attempt Inter- 

 an explanation of the progressive civilisation on river banks that f^Sy or 

 preceded that which is found on the shores of seas. The first hostile, 

 settlers on the Nile, for instance, must have formed a number of 

 independent communities. The different customs and worship 

 of different districts at a later date were no doubt survivals 

 from this earlier period. Between these earlier communities 

 there must have been war and trade, and this must have resulted 



