xi SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS 219 



When he strikes a vein he not only gets a rich return for 

 himself, but is rapidly followed by others, who crowd to 

 share the spoil. Work goes more and more merrily as 

 hands increase and the wealth of the deposit is explored, 

 but by degrees the best is carried away, the vein peters out 

 and a few nuggets at most remain for the late-comers. All 

 is dull till a new lode is struck, that is to say, till new experi- 

 ences open out or new methods of interpretation are sug- 

 gested. Nor does the new art at its best give us greater 

 beauty than the old, but a fuller interpretation of experi- 

 ence, with a deeper and more truthful expression of feeling. 



5. The practical application of the ethical spirit is in the 

 customs, laws and institutions governing the life of society, 

 and we have now to ask how far the net movement on this 

 side corresponds with the development of ideas. 



Let us note, first, that the actual efficacy of ideas in the 

 moulding or remoulding of society is itself a matter of 

 gradual evolution. In the lower societies customs change 

 through the pressure of new needs, but that change is 

 unconscious so much so that if it becomes overt it has to 

 be explained away. This unconscious growth persists in 

 the highest phases, but is almost the only influence of any 

 importance in the earlier stages of social growth. We have 

 next the deliberate acts of a Government, in its simplest 

 embodiment the ordinances of a chief taking particular 

 decisions which affect the welfare of a community or giving 

 interpretations to old customs which substantially make 

 new customs. From this in more developed societies, and 

 particularly in self-governing communities, we pass to 

 deliberate legislation, wherein the community consciously 

 sets itself to remedy inconveniences and redress wrongs, 

 while, finally, legislation comes to rest on more or less 

 systematic effort to secure the triumph of distinct social 

 ideals, and is promoted by voluntary associations directed 

 perhaps to some special end but inspired by a general con- 

 ception, whether well or ill-grounded, of the true lines of 

 human development. 



Thus it is only at an advanced stage that ideas acquire 

 the rational coherence that makes them a force in social life. 



