276 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY, [pT. lu 



first catch sight of them. They were the pioneers or Yankees 

 of prehistoric antiquity, in whom unusual flexibleness of 

 mind was the natural result of continual change in the sets 

 of relations to which they were obliged to make their theories 

 and actions conform. Prehistoric antiquity presents no other 

 case like this. The great immobile civilizations appear to 

 have grown up in comparatively well-protected regions, 

 where competition with outlying communities was checked 

 at an early date. Screened in this way from intercourse 

 with the outside world, and adapting themselves to an en- 

 vironment which altered but little, there was nothing which 

 could serve to shake them loose from their monotony of 

 discipline. A more extreme instance of a kindred pheno- 

 menon is seen in the fact that in those protected corners of 

 the world where competition has always been at a mini- 

 mum, we tind the smallest conceivable amount of progress 

 from utter bestial savagery. That same isolation which has 

 kept the flora and fauna of Australia in such a backward 

 state that they are now melting away before the imported 

 plants and animals of Europe as snow melts under a vernal 

 sun, — that same isolation has retained the Australian man 

 until this day at the lowest level of humanity. SimOar 

 things might be said of the Fuegians, the Andaman Islanders, 

 and some of the hill-tribes of aboriginal non- Aryan Hindus. 

 "Where there has been least competition and least natural 

 selection, there has been least progress from savagery. Now 

 returning to the immobile civilizations, when we bear in mind 

 that of the two conflicting elements of militaiy advantage, 

 uniformity was likely to be of most importance at first and 

 flexibility afterwards, we may begin to discern, I think, that 

 where competition ceased at an early date, uniformity may 

 well have carried the day and crushed out flexibility alto- 

 gether. Herein we have an excellent explanation of the 

 immobility of Egypt, China, Peru, and Mexico; and with 

 some further qualifications an analogous case might be made 



