CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS 



in different ages and communities their action is 

 diversely complicated with the action of the op- 

 posite advantages previously considered. Mr. 

 Bagehot's error — if it be real and not merely 

 apparent — lies in describing as purely succes- 

 sive circumstances which must have been in great 

 degree simultaneous. The " strict dilemma of 

 early society " is not that the fetters of tyran- 

 nical custom must first be riveted and afterwards 

 unriveted, but that they must be riveted and un- 

 riveted at the same time in communities which 

 are destined to attain to permanent progressive- 

 ness. On the one hand we have seen that primi- 

 tive societies in which uniformity of belief and 

 practice is most sternly enforced will prevail in 

 the struggle for life. On the other hand we have 

 seen that primitive societies in which flexibility 

 of mind is most encouraged will come out up- 

 permost. And herein lies the seeming dilemma 

 or contradiction. 



In reality, however, as the whole question 

 is one of warfare, so it is practically a struggle 

 for life between these two principles. Into the 

 numberless combinations of circumstances which 

 have given the victory now to one side and now 

 to the other, we cannot inquire, from lack of his- 

 torical data. On general grounds we may admit 

 that, at the outset, uniformity must have been 

 a more important possession than flexibility ; we 

 can plainly see how those communities that con- 



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