CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS 



for example, the ability to anticipate future con- 

 tingencies, — to abstain to-day that we may en- 

 joy to-morrow. In the next chapter it will be 

 shown that this is the most prominent symptom 

 of the deepest of all the intellectual differences 

 between civilization and savagery. Now, obvi- 

 ously, the ability to postpone present to future 

 enjoyment is, in a mere economic or military 

 aspect, such an important acquisition to any 

 race or group of men, that when once acquired 

 it could never be lost. The race possessing this 

 capacity could by no possibility yield ground 

 to the races lacking it, unless overwhelmed by 

 sheer weight of vastly superior numbers, — a 

 case which the hypothesis of a universal primi- 

 tive civilization does not leave room for. Or 

 take the ready belief in omens by which the life 

 of the savage is so terribly hampered. Could 

 a single tribe in old Australia have surmounted 

 the necessity of searching for omens before un- 

 dertaking any serious business, it would inevi- 

 tably, says Mr. Bagehot, have subjugated all 

 the other tribes on the continent. In like 

 manner it is obvious that such implements as 

 the bow and arrow and the iron swords or 

 hatchets could never have given place to the 

 boomerang and the knives and hatchets of stone 

 or bronze ; and the intellectual capacity implied 

 in monotheism and the discovery of elementary 

 geometry could never have been conquered out 



VOL. IV 17 



