CHAPTER XI 



SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS 



i . WE have traced the advance of thought by itself. But 

 it does not proceed by itself. Both as cause and effect it is 

 correlated with every side of human activity and experi- 

 ence. As cause, because the advance of thought gives 

 fresh power over the environment, suggests new ideals and 

 formulates new methods of social organisation. As effect, 

 because the basis of thought even of the ideals in which 

 imagination seems to have the freest range is in reality 

 experience. The most Utopian dream starts from experi- 

 ence, and in proportion as it recedes from experience 

 becomes shadowy and in the end meaningless. Thought 

 in social affairs is not indeed bound close to the realised 

 and the actual. Rather it is tethered to it by a rope which 

 gives it a certain play but confines it to ineffectual struggles 

 if it seeks to wander too far. 



Properly to understand the development of mind then 

 we must attempt a very summary view of the correspond- 

 ing stages in the growth of human achievement in general, 

 of the social structure, the arts and industry. Unfor- 

 tunately a summary view of social development is more 

 easily imagined than attained. The extreme complexity 

 of the subject, the bewildering mass of cultural data which 

 with all its wealth leaves gaps and blanks where informa- 

 tion is most necessary, the difficulties of interpretation and 

 the absence of admitted standards of comparison combine 

 to make the measurement of social progress an exceedingly 

 difficult task. Let us, however, seek to appreciate the 

 general character of the evidence and the possible method 



