COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



quered by means of uniformity became caught, 

 as it were, in their own toils, and were estopped 

 from further progression ; and we can see how 

 those communities that won the day by preserv- 

 ing a modicum of flexibility have been rewarded 

 by unlimited progressi veness. We can thus dimly 

 discern the way in which China has become im- 

 mobile, while Europe has become ever more 

 and more mobile. But beyond these most gen- 

 eral indications of what has happened, we can 

 discern but little. We cannot tell precisely, for 

 example, why the European Aryans won the day 

 by preserving a modicum of flexibility, rather 

 than by enforcing such a monotony of dispo- 

 sition as would kill out all flexibility. At the 

 earliest dawn of history the European portion 

 of the Aryan race already surpasses all other 

 races, both in individual variety of character and 

 in longheadedness. The details of the process 

 by which this superiority was gained are hidden 

 from us in the night of time. Upon one point, 

 however, we may profitably speculate. Among 

 all the historic civilizations, the European is the 

 one of which we can most decidedly assert that 

 it is not autochthonous. The Aryans who con- 

 quered Europe in successive Keltic, Italo-Hel- 

 lenlc, Teutonic, and Slavonic swarms, were not 

 the quiet, conservative, stay-at-home people of 

 prehistoric antiquity, but were rather the elect 

 of all the most adventurous and flexible minded 

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