COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



that much of the marvellous success of the 

 Roman commonwealth was traceable to strict- 

 ness of family discipline. In like manner, as 

 Mr. Bagehot has suggested, we may discern 

 the true social function performed by those 

 dreadful religions of early times which so nat- 

 urally awakened loathing and horror in such 

 thinkers as Lucretius : they enforced, with tre- 

 mendous sanctions, such lines of conduct as 

 were prescribed by the necessities of the primi- 

 tive community ; they rendered it easier to en- 

 sure concerted action among men by compelling 

 all to act in conformity to some unchangeable 

 rule. 



In short, among numerous tribal groups of 

 primitive men, those will prevail in the struggle 

 for existence in which the lawless tendencies of 

 individuals are most thoroughly subordinated 

 by the yoke of tyrannical custom, — the only 

 yoke which uncivilized men can be made to 

 wear. Such communities will grow at the ex- 

 pense of tribes that are less law-abiding. It mat- 

 ters comparatively little, as Mr. Bagehot says, 

 whether the tyrant custom be intrinsically good 

 or bad : the great thing, at first, is to subject 

 men's individualities to a system of common 

 habits. Mr. Mill has complained, in his work 

 on " Liberty " and elsewhere, that one of the 

 characteristics of modern civilization is the dis- 

 appearance of strongly marked individualities, 



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