PROGRESS OF MAX. - 193 



some measure attained; but even then its 

 perpetuation was of enormous benefit to the 

 human race (as pointed out by Theodore 

 Parker) by preventing the formation of an 

 hereditary hierarchy. 



Nor can the stupendous architecture of the 

 ancients be regarded as necessarily a sign of 

 ultra-civilisation. The glory of our modern 

 civilisation is its differentiation and indepen- 

 dence, which would render it impossible for 

 any modern Cheops* to concentrate the whole 

 industr}^ of an enslaved empire, for half a 

 century, on the erection of a vast monument 

 which shall stand for all time. The vast cost, 

 and the impossibility of compelling whole popu- 

 lations to slave-labour is one reason why such 

 works are impossible at the present day ; and 

 this very impossibility is no sign of our infe- 

 riority to the ancients, but rather the reverse. 

 Scarcely a city, much less a mere monument, 

 could be reared by forced labour at the 

 present day, though forced labour was em- 

 ployed, not so very long ago, in the erection 



* I follow the usual story of Herodotus here, merely in illustration 

 of the argument, without in any way pledging myself to the historical 

 accuracy of the tradition which he records. 



O 



