CHAP, xii DARWINISM IN POLITICS: BAGEHOT 1 29 



truly so than many things which have been thus 

 described. 



Custom being established, the next question to be 

 faced is, how the cake of custom may be broken and 

 progress inaugurated. Custom, and the rough natural 

 selection of early ages, ensure stability ; they are the 

 factors in social statics; but what are the factors in 

 social dynamics ? For a long time the greatest 

 selecting agency is war. Military nations prevail 

 over those which are less effective upon the field of 

 battle, and to a large extent imitation gradually 

 diffuses the principles of the higher and conquering 

 civilisation among the vanquished. For in a sense 

 the conquering civilisation is higher. Reflection 

 shows us that, up to a certain point, the best man 

 wins in the fierce competition of war. The military 

 virtues are correlated to other virtues besides conquest. 

 Beyond a certain point, however, progress is not 

 secured. War tests and develops the military virtues, 

 but it does nothing to hinder the heavy weight of 

 custom from crushing out the finer possibilities of 

 human nature. On the contrary, as we know from 

 Mr. Spencer, militarism is the natural ally of autocracy 

 and of reaction ; it calls for a blind obedience. 

 Therefore, to end this paragraph as we began it, we 

 are called on by Bagehot to notice how very many 

 civilisations have become stagnant; how very few 

 have been the instances of progress ; how many 

 beginnings that promised well have suffered a speedy 

 arrest. In the same spirit another distinguished 

 writer, Sir Henry Maine, has taught us that the bar- 

 barian inroads may have been needed to save Europe 

 from the fate of China. These positions are memor- 



