COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



of this progressiveness during the historic period 

 is a fact which need not long detain us. Since 

 the beginnings of Mediterranean civilization, the 

 heterogeneity of the environment has been too 

 great, and the "changes in the environment too 

 rapid, to allow of general stagnation; while the 

 assaults of outer barbarism have been for the 

 most part warded off by the military superiority 

 which this higher civilization has entailed. At 

 times there has been an appearance of danger 

 that much of this hard-won advantage might be 

 lost, not merely through assaults from without, 

 but through causes internally operating. After 

 the earlier incentives to noble and varied activity 

 connected with the autonomous spirit had been 

 destroyed by the universal hegemony of Rome, 

 the need for protection from the threatening 

 barbarian began to bring about a retrogression, 

 in which for a time uniformity seemed likely to 

 flourish at the expense of individuality. It is 

 instructive, from this point of view, to observe 

 the gradual change toward an Oriental type 

 of government which went on from the time of 

 Augustus to that of Diocletian. In the eastern 

 half of the Empire, after its final political sever- 

 ance from the western half at the end of the 

 eighth century, this change became really con- 

 summated, and after a while defeated itself by 

 culminating in a social stagnation and mili- 

 tary feebleness which invited the sharp scimi- 



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