THE NATUEE OF TEADITION 411 



among men who have reached the conceptual level, so the earliest 

 stage of conceptual thought can be recognized where later stages 

 have been reached, as, for instance, when grace is conferred by the 

 laying on of hands in a modem community. 



The beginnings of the common-sense stage may perhaps be 

 found in the second period. Essentially it is characteristic of the 

 third period, and it was only within this period that this stage 

 came to its full development. When this stage is contrasted 

 with that which preceded it, it is seen that it is the clarification 

 of concepts which is the distinguishing feature of the movement 

 of thought. In other words there has been an improvement in 

 the instrument whereby the intellect works — comparable to any 

 other process through which skill is increased. Just as the bow 

 and arrow and the plough have been improved by a series of inven- 

 tions, so has the instrument of thought been improved ; and just 

 as further improvements in the plough and the bow and arrow 

 after a certain stage has been reached may possibly depend 

 upon further evolution of mental capacity, so possibly progress 

 in the movement of thought may depend upon further evolution 

 of the intellect. Again it should be observed that just as tools 

 such as the plough are handed down as part of the tradition, 

 so, too, the instrument of thought is handed down as part of the 

 tradition and that, therefore, in studying in what follows the 

 manner in which tradition is passed on and stored up, we are 

 studying the methods whereby the instrument of thought as much 

 as any other skilled process is transmitted. 



Further stages in the movement of thought maybe distinguished. 

 It is not necessary to go into them here. They arise within the 

 third period, and relatively late within that period. They are 

 characterized by the rise and development of science, philosophy, 

 and rehgion — religion, that is to say, which has passed beyond 

 the stage of folk-reUgion. 



3. Let us now consider the passing on and storing up of the 

 products of conceptual thinking. We may take the latter point 

 first. Ideas may be stored up in language, customs, folk-lore, 

 institutions, tools, and so on, using tools in the narrower sense of 

 material implements. In one sense language is in itself a great 

 storehouse of ideas quite apart from its function as a means of 

 transmitting ideas regarding specific customs and rights. Slowly 

 and painfully concepts have been elaborated, distinguished, 



