NATURE AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 29 



outline the entire history of human progress from Book i 

 the dawn of man's existence to the industrial civil- 

 isation of to-day. 



The determining factors in all social phenomena The true causes 

 are, says Mr. Spencer, primarily of two kinds the phenomena 

 "external" and the "internal" The former con- | r p e ' n s c ^ Mr 

 sist of some of the various physical circumstances p fa y sical envir - 



1 * onment and 



in which each community or collection of men is men 's natural 

 placed ; the latter consist of the characters and con- 

 stitutions of the men themselves. In the history 

 of each community the chief of the external factors 

 are these : the climate of the region which the 

 community occupies ; the cultivability of this region; 

 its geological and geographical character ; the way 

 in which the fauna and flora natural to it are distri- 

 buted ; and the character of the other communities 

 by which the community in question is surrounded. 

 One of the first generalisations, says Mr. Spencer, The first 



i , i 11-1- i physical cause 



to which social science leads is this that progress O f progress was 



can begin only in climates and regions where the 



production of the necessaries of life is sufficiently 



easy to leave men leisure and energy available for 



other work ; and all progress did as a fact begin in 



those parts of the earth where the maintenance of 



life was easy. 



He goes on to show, however, that the initiation and an ex - 



- , 1 i i ceptionally 



of progress does not require only that the men bracing 

 concerned in it should inhabit a region in which the dl 

 production of necessaries is easy and leaves them 

 abundant leisure. It is equally essential that the 

 men themselves should possess an energetic tern- 



