126 FROM COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD PART in 



tance of experience via the nervous system ; and yet 

 the main lines of his book need not be changed. 



All through the discussion his problem, as he 

 conceives it, has these two sides, physiological and polit- 

 ical, but he declines to deal directly with the physio- 

 logical questions involved. How have nations been 

 differentiated ? We assume an original unity of the 

 human race; from whence then the differences? 

 Bagehot is to deal with the minor causes, which are 

 mainly political. Beyond and behind their range, 

 other very obscure causes must have been at work 

 to separate, not nation from nation, but race from 

 race; to differentiate negroes or Mongolians from 

 white men ; presumably we might add, to differen- 

 tiate Aryans from Semites. But, apart from a single 

 reference to views held by Mr. A. R. Wallace, 

 Bagehot does not enter upon this question at all. 

 Granted race evolution, he asks how political evolu- 

 tion proceeds. Do we encounter in it the workings 

 of inheritance and natural selection? If so, what 

 forms do they take? 



But even within the political region two problems 

 are entangled together if, indeed, I ought not 

 rather to say that there are two different ways of 

 conceiving the one political problem. This double- 

 ness of aspect or of parts is embarrassing ; yet it is a 

 difficulty we often encounter as we follow evolution- 

 ary discussions, especially those which bear upon 

 man. Does evolution mean progress, or does it 

 simply mean differentiation ? By wedding " Physics," 

 i.e. biology, and " Politics," are we seeking to explain 

 the cause of political changes or rather of political 

 improvement? Parts of Bagehot's book deal with 



