464 TRADITION AND HEREDITY 



sometimes of decadence tend to occur after periods of sudden 

 advance. 



It appears that we should attribute differential fertility, with its 

 possibly serious effect upon the direction of germinal change 

 which marks these periods, rather to the prevalence of apathy 

 than, as Mr. McDougall and others would do, attribute to differ- 

 ential fertility the evidence of decline. For it is the upper classes 

 upon whom the sense of apathy weighs, and it is they who con- 

 tribute least to future generations. Further, we may remark that 

 decline is not so mysterious a matter as is sometimes suggested. 

 Such complex organizations are vigorous civilizations that, as has 

 been said, ' the wonderful thing is that they exist at all ; what 

 needs explanation is not so much the decay of some, but rather 

 the long persistence of others.' l 



In concluding our reference to this matter, we may notice that 

 in recent times, when the working of tradition is known to us in 

 detail, changes can be traced as due to tradition to which the 

 cyclical changes are similar though of greater magnitude. Attention 

 has been drawn to the moulding of tradition in Germany in 

 a particular direction which so powerfully affected the achieve- 

 ment of that race. These events cannot be explained as due in 

 the main to germinal change, though possibly, as observed, the 

 German regime initiated about 1850 may have resulted in the 

 emigration of a certain type of German, and thus in this way 

 germinal change may have played a minor part. So too England 

 during the Boer War was very different to England at the election 

 of 1906, and the difference which was obviously traditional was 

 enough to affect the achievement of the race. In such examples, 

 which could be multiplied indefinitely, we see how the current 

 of tradition may set in one way or another quite apart from 

 germinal changes, and such changes of current may lead, when 

 they hold good over generations, to periods of advance or of decay. 



15. There remains to be discussed the importance of tradition 

 in modern differential fertility. It is first necessary to examine 

 rather more closely than has yet been done the manner in which 

 mental characters as manifested are due to tradition, and then to 

 ask how far the particular traditions, to which the upper and 

 lower classes are respectively subject, account for the mental 

 characteristics manifested by them. 



1 McDougall, Group Mind, p. 146. 



