THE EXPLANATION OF SEEMING EXCEPTIONS. 2 25 



with comparatively little social coherence. Why 

 did civilization arise in the despotic East? ,why did 

 Greece remain free, to become the mother and 

 model of science, art and philosophy ? why, again, 

 did Greece succumb to Rome, and Rome to the 

 rude vigour of the Teutons ? At first sight the 

 course of civilization does not seem to have always 

 run smooth. 



Now in order to understand these facts, we must 

 remember the rhythm of progress, which may be 

 likened to the billows of an ever-growing tide which 

 never recedes. But as it deepens, disturbances of 

 its surface waves bear an ever-diminishing propor- 

 tion to its total bulk. While civilization was young, 

 its temporary vicissitudes and its transient eclipses, 

 which accompanied the decay of the nations that 

 represented it, might well seem alarming, and If we 

 confine our view to sufficiently narrow limits, we 

 may find ages of almost unmitigated retrogression. 

 But for all that civilization advances, and the rate of 

 its advance is ever accelerated with the growing 

 [momentum of its growing bulk. Secondly, we may 

 idmlt that in some respects the early civilizations 

 [were more perfect, not only than the societies which 

 [supplanted them, but even than our own {cf. ch. iv. 



15). A society which is articulated Into castes 

 [does possess a higher structure and a higher formal 

 perfection of organization than one in which func- 

 tions are not yet differentiated, and every one is a 

 [jack-of- all-trades. So, too, the highest insects are 

 lore highly organized than the lowest fishes. And 

 ■a system of castes is not only a high form of social 

 organization, but also one particularly valuable In 

 the beginnings of civilization, and conducive to the 

 [progress of tribes which adopted it. As Is so well 



R. of s. Q 



