256 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [pt. h. 



becomes apparent, tlierefore, that the progress of the European 

 Aryans, and of such other races as have from time to time 

 arisen from an immobile condition, can have been due only 

 to a concurrence of favourable circumstances. In order to 

 complete our outline-sketch of the Evolution of Society, we 

 must consider some of these circumstances, and thus, so far 

 as possible, redeem the promise which was implied at the 

 beginning of the discussion. By pointing out some of the 

 conditions essential to progress in civilization, we must en- 

 deavour to throw a glimmer of light upon the fact that so 

 small a portion of the human race has attained to per- 

 manent progressiveness. A faint glimmer of enlight'^nment 

 is indeed the most we can hope for, and even this will 

 perhaps be thought to have been obtained by a mere re- 

 statement of the problem in other words. Nevertheless, in 

 other departments of study as well as in algebra, much good 

 is often done by reducing a problem from one form of ex- 

 pression to another. For if such a reduction ends in classi- 

 fying the problem, the first and most important step is taken 

 toward a solution. Let us deal in this way with the pro- 

 blem before us, which is one of the most complex and 

 difficult that the history of the world presents. 



It will be obvious to everyone that there is a close kin- 

 ship between this question in sociology and the biological 

 question why certain species remain unchanged through 

 countless ages. The latter fact has been urged as an obstacle 

 in the way of the development theory, and has been felt to 

 be such by Dr. Bastian, who has endeavoured to dispose of 

 it by an extraordinary application of his favourite theories 

 of archebiosis and heterogenesis.-^ But indeed those who 

 urge this fact as an obstacle, and those who seek to explain 

 it away, show that they have not thoroughly comprehended 

 the Doctrine of Evolution. Eor example, it is not implied 

 in the general law of evolution, as above expounded in 

 ^ Bastian, Beginnings of Life, voL ii. pp. 584 — 640. 



