INTRODUCTION 



however, that the appearance of "a modicum 

 of flexibility '* and of individual freedom was a 

 sort of spontaneous variation of certain social 

 stocks that had been subject to very heteroge- 

 neous physical and social fortunes. Such were 

 the stocks from which the modern Europeans 

 sprang, — the product of conditions of fierce 

 competition and of restless wandering. " Con- 

 tinual change of foes to be overcome, and of 

 natural obstacles to be surmounted, must have 

 given the advantage, at last, to those tribes 

 which had gained enough uniformity to insure 

 concerted action, without sacrificing their versa- 

 tility of mind in the process." Thus an essen- 

 tially Darwinian type of explanation of the 

 appearance of stocks mobile enough to encour- 

 age individuality, but conservative enough to 

 unite for warfare, constitutes Fiske's contribu- 

 tion to the question as to how the progressive 

 stocks can have originated. The essential con- 

 dition of social progress is thus one which tends 

 " to encourage individuality without -weakening 

 concentration." " Hence the peculiarly plastic 

 consistency — the flexibility combined with 

 toughness — of West-Aryan civilization." 



These reflections are very characteristic of 

 Fiske. They are meanwhile conceived in a Dar- 

 winian, rather than in any strictly Spencerian 

 spirit. They involve the admission that what 

 Ixxv 



