COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



Finnic tribes subjected to Aryan influences, that 

 we can find evidences of a persistent tendency 

 to progress. And that there is no inherent race 

 tendency at work in this is shown by the fact 

 that some of the Aryans, as the Hindus and 

 Persians, are among the most unprogressive of 

 men. It becomes apparent, therefore, that the 

 progress of the European Aryans, and of such 

 other races as have from time to time risen from 

 an immobile condition, can have been due only 

 to a concurrence of favourable circumstances. 

 In order to complete our outline sketch of the 

 Evolution of Society, we must consider some 

 of these circumstances, and thus, so far as pos- 

 sible, redeem the promise which was implied at 

 the beginning of the discussion. By pointing 

 out some of the conditions essential to progress 

 in civilization, we must endeavour to throw a 

 glimmer of light upon the fact that so small a 

 portion of the human race has attained to per- 

 manent progressiveness. A faint glimmer of en- 

 lightenment is indeed the most we can hope for, 

 and even this will perhaps be thought to have 

 been obtained by a mere restatement of the prob- 

 lem in other words. Nevertheless, in other de- 

 partments of study as well as in algebra, much 

 good is often done by reducing a problem from 

 one form of expression to another. For if such 

 a reduction ends in classifying the problem, the 

 first and most important step is taken toward a 



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