CONCLUSION 481 



of the segmentary organization of society and to the rise of the 

 organic type of social organization. This is the paradox of the 

 population problem. Change among species in a state of nature 

 is based upon germinal change alone ; change among our pre- 

 human ancestors was equally a matter of change in the quality 

 of population ; but the explanation of the most outstanding fact 

 in recent history broadly viewed is to be sought in a change in 

 quantity rather than in quality of population. 



The explanation of the course of events since late Palaeolithic 

 times as due to tradition on the lines indicated in the last chapter 

 is in general satisfactory, provided that on the one hand allowance 

 is made for the fact that differences in race do imply differences 

 in mental and moral qualities, which arising on the whole together 

 with changes in tradition, reinforce the tendency to change along 

 certain lines, and that on the other hand apparently chance 

 happenings do give turns and twists to the course of events. The 

 reconciliation of this latter phenomenon with the general trend of 

 the argument is not difficult. Under certain conditions the death 

 or even theaindisposition of some prominent man or the whim of 

 a powerful minister may appear to divert the course of events. 

 Nevertheless in reality such events have only a passing effect and do 

 not obscure the broad workings of the factors we have indicated. 



The relation of the innate qualities to tradition may be illus- 

 trated by the use of a metaphor. Tradition may be likened to 

 some vast structure which mankind is building. Each generation 

 adds a few bricks to the structure. The part of the building to 

 which any one man contributes, whether it is to the ground floor 

 or to one of the upper stories, wholly depends upon the race and 

 epoch to which he belongs ; so too does for the most part the 

 kind of brick he will lay and the methods he will employ in laying 

 it. His contribution to the structure is governed by the plan of 

 the building as elaborated by previous generations and by the 

 bricks they have prepared and the methods of laying them they 

 have introduced. But in any generation whether a man will lay 

 a brick at all or whether he will do it energetically and intelligently 

 as compared with his fellow-workers will depend upon the innate 

 qualities with which he is endowed. 



Our conclusion therefore must be something after this kind. 

 Those who base upon germinal change their hopes for the physical 

 condition of the human race in the future are building upon 



2493 



