INTRODUCTION 



unity which have enabled these more progres- 

 sive types of mankind to dominate the un- 

 progressive, or to destroy the latter when the 

 two types have come into conflict. He then 

 points out the strongly contrasting fact of the 

 importance of prominent individuals in deter- 

 mining the transition to higher civilized com- 

 munities in the more fortunate cases. The 

 selective value of the community spirit, in case 

 of the stronger social types of mankind, can by 

 itself only explain how, through conquest, social 

 " aggregates of the first order," such as those 

 of" Egypt, Assyria, China, Mexico, and Peru," 

 come to be formed. But in such communities 

 as these, individual initiative is suppressed, and 

 hence progress is stopped at a certain point. 

 Now there seems to be a great difficulty in get- 

 ting beyond this point, since the very condi- 

 tions that, in more primitive societies, lead to 

 a strict enforcement of uniformity of belief and 

 practice, seem so far to be necessary for the suc- 

 cess of the stronger community in its struggle 

 with others. Yet, on the other hand, only where 

 individuality is encouraged can there be devel- 

 oped, as a later consequence of such individu- 

 ality, that " flexibility of mind " which made 

 the Greeks for a time so potent, and which now 

 gives to the civilized European stocks their 

 predominance. Fiske decides, on the whole, 

 Ixxiv 



