282 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY, [pt. ii. 



Roman ideas— was very different from the form of it ex- 

 emplified by the Hindu who refers his modern edicts about 

 water-supply to some remote era of primitive legislation. 

 Between the two there is a world-wide difference, — all the 

 difference between stagnation and progress. For the abstract 

 and impersonal form in which the lioman conceived his Jus 

 Naturce made it possible for him to appeal to it, not simply 

 in justification of particular departures from ancient custom, 

 but in justification of the general principle of departure 

 from ancient custom. It constituted, as it were, a court of 

 appeal before which time-honoured customs must be called 

 upon to establish their validity. It opened men's minds to 

 the distinction between mala proliihita and mala in se. It 

 prepared the way for the recognition of a "higher law " of 

 God as distinct from the local and temporary laws of man. 

 And in this way it no doubt contributed largely toward the 

 establishment of Christianity as an independent spiritual 

 power in the Empire. 



To deal adequately with these interesting illustrations 

 would require us to extend this part of our discussion to 

 disproportionate length. Our purpose is sufficiently sub- 

 served by the foregoing fragmentary statement, in which the 

 problem of human progressiveness, though not fully solved, 

 is at least so far classified that the solution of it is facili- 

 tated. AVe have seen that permanent progressiveness is 

 found where the social aggregate is characterized by a cohe- 

 sion among its parts which is neither too little nor too great. 

 An excess and a deficiency of individual mobility have been 

 shown to be alike incompatible with that persistent tendency 

 toward internal rearrangement which we call progressiveness. 

 The sociological puzzle to which Mr. Bagehot has called 

 attention, and with which we have been concerned in the 

 present chapter, is substantially the same thing as the 

 dynamic paradox which confronted us when, in the fourth 

 chapter, we \» ere seeking to determine the conditions which 



