INTRODUCTION 



still the all-important phenomenon to be inves- 

 tigated. It is the one grand phenomenon, to ex- 

 plain the presence and the absence of which is to 

 explain the phenomena of history. . . . The 

 study of the progressive communities furnishes 

 us, as we shall see, a law of history ; a law which, 

 in its most general expression, covers the phe- 

 nomena presented by the non-progressive com- 

 munities likewise." 



23. Fiske hereupon passes to the definition 

 of the " prime factors " in social progress, viz. 

 " the Community and its Environment." The 

 concept of the environment, in case of a civilized 

 people, is for Fiske a very broad one, including 

 not only the physical but the intertribal or the 

 international relationships of the community, 

 and also embracing its historical relationships to 

 the past of human civilization. Fiske empha- 

 sizes the importance of the intellectual and moral 

 environment of a people, as against the merely 

 physical environment. He is consequently able 

 also all the more easily to emphasize the thought 

 that the " equilibration " of the community with 

 its environment must, in case of progress, espe- 

 cially involve " the continuous weakening of 

 selfishness and the continuous strengthening of 

 sympathy," both within each community and 

 amongst various progressive communities as 

 they tend to coalesce into larger aggregates. The 

 Ixx 



