THE STATUS OF MAN. 277 



This third possible way of so arranging matters of Govern- 

 ment that they will be acceptable to all the people, consists of 

 making one class of the nation. The barriers which keep 

 apart two sections of mankind within one nation, are obviously 

 not geographic barriers or sterility. Ranges of mountains will 

 keep species of rabbits separate and species of butterflies, but 

 man tunnels them and constructs railroads through the passes. 

 Rivers will keep apart species of deer and of snakes and violets, 

 but man bridges them. 



The barriers with which we are concerned, are almost wholly 

 social and therefore, amenable to change and removal. Two 

 active causes which bring about the discrepancy between the 

 number of inter-specific and intra-specific marriages in one 

 nation, are the things which we call property and culture. 



In certain circles and peoples, the recognition of these bar- 

 riers to the unity of the nation, to democracy in other terms, 

 engenders the wish to abolish property and culture. 



However, if we examine the difficulty a little closer, we see 

 that it is not property and culture as such, which act as bar- 

 riers to unity, but the possibility of monopoly of property and 

 culture by one class. 



We see examples of communities where there is no inheri- 

 tance, and we see how in these communities individual merits 

 bring men to the top, and the needs of the needy are piovided 

 for and everybody has an equal chance of developing. We are 

 not speaking of very desirable communities, because in desir- 

 able communities inheritance will soon play a role. Two instan- 

 ces may be given. We see such conditions in places where there 

 is no property, or only vestiges of it, where very few aborigines 

 live naked in a rich country that provides plenty of roots, and 

 birds, and fat grubs, and fish, for everybody, where a man does 

 not specially have to provide for his children, not because the 

 state will set them up, but because nature does. The blacks of 

 tropical Queensland are a case in point. 



We also see communities without inheritance in those cases 

 where the Ifie of the community is of so ephemeral a nature, 



