128 



KNOWLEDGE 



[June 1, 1900. 



more facile for movement than the pastors of the stejjpes, 

 as the poverty of the pasturages necessitates the frequent 

 shifting of their abode. No nomad surpasses the Arab 

 in celerity of movement. 



Thanks to the habitual life of the caravan, for the 

 tribe is only a permanent caravan, this type possesses 

 the complete framework of an army. It is an army 

 always on the march, always in exercise, always ready 

 to shift the camp, with a council of chiefs and a com- 

 mander-Ja-chief. And the army is as well prepared for 

 attack as for defence, for life in the deserts is a continual 

 straggle against inimical tribes. When a favourable 

 occasion offers to expansion the tribe affords an effective 

 organization, ready at a moment's notice, with a proved 

 chief, who knows his men, and is known by them. 



This type is also veiy superior to that of the steppes 

 from the point of view of administrating the conc^uered 

 countiy. 



No one can ignore that the empire of the Arabs has 

 played a very different part in histoi-y from that of 

 Attila and Tamerlane. There has been an Arab civili- 

 sation and it was brilliant; the justice and the adminis- 

 tration of the Caliphs ai-e celebrated, and justly so. 

 They knew how to rule not only the Orient but Spain, 

 they knew how to develop not only culture but the ai-ts, 

 letters, and the sciences. For there was an Ar-ab art 

 and science. No one has ever heard of an art or 

 science of the Tatars or of the Mongols. 



The aptitude for government is equally the result of 

 the jjermanent organisation into tribes. As tribes, 

 these societies possess the machinery for government 

 under those conditions which assure permanence and 

 solidity. In this, the Arab societj' approaches the com- 

 plicated societies of tho west. The tribe is a natural 

 and permanent grouping which does not tend to dissolve 

 after victory. The necessity to annually sell the pro- 

 ducts of fabrication 25uts the Arabs also into relation 

 with town life. 



There are certain characteristics that are common to 

 the peoples under review. There is : — 



(1) Community in occupation. The nomad pastoral 

 art requires a numerous staff (a) to herd and make use 

 of the flocks that are necessarily spread over consider- 

 able areas ; (6) to defend themselves and theu- flocks, 

 for they can have no other security in these solitudes; 

 (c) to counteract the tedium of isolation, and to meet 

 the adventures of a wandering life ; (d) to provide for 

 the numerous articles of domestic use, for most usually 

 each group has to be comjjletely self-suSicing owing to 

 the distance it is from all the resources of commerce. 



(2) Community in property. Grass grows without the 

 labour of man hence there is no work exjjended, which 

 of itself tends to create a jfroprietary right. The soil is 

 unappropriated by individuals or even by family groups 

 for the nomad population. Extensive commonage is 

 more useful than the exclusive possession of a restricted 

 definite area. 



(3) Community in the family. Since a pastoral life 

 demands a numerous staff, the various households 

 derived from a common ancestor tend to remain together 

 under the rule of the community, instead of separating 

 t'"> establish themselves independently. The girls naturally 

 separate, but onlj' to enter into another community, 

 into that of their husbands. Such is the type of the 

 patriarchal family which groups a large number of 

 households around each chief or patriarch. 



What characterises this group of societies is not only 

 the intenr.e development of the community, but also the 

 absence of all higher nucial oryanisatiuns. 



These societies are entirely limited to the community 

 of the family, it is^ precisely this which gives to all this 

 group of .'ocieties its great character of simplicity. None 

 of the coQiplications which result from the higher or- 

 ganisations of social life, or of public life, can be pro- 

 duced here, since these organisations do not exist. Or, 

 at least, Ihey only exist latent, so to sjjeak, in the state; 

 they are not separated from the family, they are blended 

 with it. 



It is in fact, the chief of the community who fulfils, 

 according to circumstances, the diverse functions, which 

 elsewhere are specialised, of patron, teacher, religious 

 instructoi', policeman, magistrate, sovereign. These 

 functions appear here as the attributes and extension of 

 the paternal authority. 



In a word, each community is in itself a little, com- 

 plete, auionomous state; it is a social microcosm. 



Two principal effects are produced by the communi- 

 tai-y organisation : — 



1. Aversion to Hard Work. — It is evident that people 

 who live under the regime of the community, who draw 

 upon the common estate, not in proportion to their 

 labour, but in proportion to their needs, are naturally 

 inclined to work as little as possible ; each has a tendency 

 to rely on the labour of others much more than upon his 

 own, and as a consequence is tempted to make the least 

 effort. 



The indolence, passiveness, fatalism, which charac- 

 terise the pastoral peoples, or those derived from pastors, 

 appear to owe their origin to the communitary organi- 

 sation. 



2. The Minimising of Individual Initiative. — Men who 

 are born, who live, and who die in a community ; who 

 during their whole life have no need to take a personal 

 decision, ror to incur any responsibility ; who in every- 

 thing have to submit to the authority of the chief of the 

 community ; who cannot do anything without the sanc- 

 tion of this community; men, in a word, who are 

 pei-petually considered as minors, can have no initiative. 

 How can they have even the conception of it? One sees 

 here the cause which has so profoundly developed the 

 principle of authority in the East, and which has made 

 the patriarchal power the highest exjDressiou of this 

 authority. 



The absence of hard work and of initiative is very 

 slightly inconvenient in pastoral societies, where the 

 problem of life is greatly simplified. 



Man is not naturally inclined to work : the grass, 

 which is the princijjal resoiu'ce of the herders, requires 

 no labour, it renews itself each year. The soil upon 

 which he pastures his flocks cannot be lost to him, 

 for it belongs to evei'yonc. Each enjoys it in perpetuity, 

 despite his improvidence and comparative laziness. This 

 happy proprietor has no dread of mortgage, of usuiy, nor 

 of dispossession. 



Mankind is by Nature little inclined to initiative. The 

 pastoral art is, by its natiu-e, immobile ; it is not sus- 

 ceptible of improvements, the pastor has only to do 

 tranquilly what has been done since time immemorial 

 by his predecessors ; he may act by routine at his ease, 

 without compromising his interests. 



THE ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITION. 



The labour bestowed by the Royal Academy of Arts in 

 selecting works for its annual exhibition is enormous, 

 while the efforts made to deal justly and generously with 

 the multitude of artists and others who send in 



