cu. XX.] CONDITIONS OF PROGBESS, 271 



are likely to flow from British dominion in Hindustan, or 

 from the intrusion of European ideas into Japan and China. 

 Looking to the past only, it is safe to say that when the 

 " cake of custom " has become so firmly cemented, and on 

 such a great scale, as in these primitively-organized commu- 

 nities, there is but little likelihood of its getting broken. The 

 Oriental stage — if one may so call it — is not a stage through 

 which progressive nations pass, but it is a stage in which 

 further progress is impossible, save through the occurrence 

 of some deep-reaching social revolution. The progressive 

 races are jutt those which have in some way avoided this 

 dilemma, — which have succeeded in securing concerted action 

 among individuals without going so far as to kill out the 

 tendency to individual variations. Historically we find no 

 traces of primitive political despotism among the European 

 Aryans. Alike among Greeks, Italians, Teutons, and Slaves, 

 we find the elements of a free constitution at hand, and the 

 " age of discussion " inaugurated, at the very beginnings of 

 recorded history. Though society is still constructed on the 

 patriarchal type, there is nevertheless an amount of relative 

 mobility among the social units such as is not witnessed 

 either in Oriental despotisms or among modern savages. 



I believe, tlei'efore, that tlie character of the dilemma is 

 somewhat inadequately represented by Mr. Bagehot. It is not 

 quite true that in a progressive society the " cake of custom " 

 must first be cemented as firmly as possible, and then after- 

 wards broken. For when the cementing passes beyond a 

 certain point, the breaking becomes impracticable. The 

 dilemma consists rather in the fact that in a progressive 

 society the cementing and the breaking of the " cake of 

 custom " must go on simultaneously. Ol.vserve the sgeming 

 contradiction. 



While it is perfectly true that the power of concerted 

 action on a large scale gives to tlie community jjossessing it 

 a decided military advcuitage, and while it is true that in 



