COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



than Mr. Bagehot has done, that in all probabil- 

 ity none of the progressive Aryan races has ever 

 passed through anything corresponding to the 

 Chinese or Egyptian stage, and that when a com- 

 munity has once got into such a state of fixity, 

 it is really questionable whether it can ever get 

 out of it, unless under the direct tuition of other 

 communities. It would at present be premature 

 to speculate upon the results which are likely to 

 flow from British dominion in Hindustan, or 

 from the intrusion of European ideas into Japan 

 and China. Looking to the past only, it is safe 

 to say that when the " cake of custom " has be- 

 come so firmly cemented, and on such a great 

 scale, as in these primitively organized commu- 

 nities, there is but little likelihood of its getting 

 broken. The Oriental stage — if one may so 

 call it — is not a stage through which progres- 

 sive nations pass, but it is a stage in which fur- 

 ther progress is impossible, save through the 

 occurrence of some deep-reaching social revolu- 

 tion. The progressive races are just those which 

 have in some way avoided this dilemma, — 

 which have succeeded in securing concerted ac- 

 tion among individuals without going so far as 

 to kill out the tendency to individual variations. 

 Historically we find no traces of primitive po- 

 litical despotism among the European Aryans. 

 Alike among Greeks, Italians, Teutons, and 

 Slavs, we find the elements of a free constitu- 

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