696 REPORT—1904. 
was so essential to the harp, to enable it to become a really efficient instrument. 
The same juxtaposition of similar types, without mutual influence, may be seen in 
modern Africa among ruder forms of these instruments. 
And yet, in spite of instances such as this—where a valuable feature suggested 
by one instrument has not been adopted for the improvement of another, even 
though the two forms are in constant use side by side—we must recognise that 
progress in the main is effected by a process of bringing the experience gained in 
one direction to bear upon the results arrived at in another. This process of 
grafting one idea upon another, or, as we may call it, the hybridization of ideas 
and experience, is a factor in the advancement of culture whose influence cannot 
be overestimated. It is, in fact, the main secret of progress. In the animal world 
hybridization is liable to produce sterile offspring ; in the world of ideas its results 
are usually far different. A fresh stimulus is imparted, which may last through 
generations of fruitful descendants. The vate at which progress is effected 
increases steadily with the growth of experience, whereby the number of ideas 
which my act and react upon one another is augmented. 
It follows, as a corollary, that he who would trace out the phylogenetic history 
of any product of human industry will speedily discover that, if he aims at doing 
so tn detail, he must be prepared for disappointments. The tangle is too involved 
to be completely unravelled. The sequence, strictly speaking, is not in the form 
of a simple chain, but rather in that of a highly complex system of chains. The 
time-honoured simile afforded by a river perhaps supplies the truest comparison. 
The course of the main stream of our evolution series may be fairly clear to us, 
even as far as to its principal source ; we may even explore and study the general 
effect produced by the more important tributaries; but to investigate in detail the 
contributions afforded in present and past of the innumerable smaller streams, 
brooks, and runlets is clearly beyond anyone's power, even supposing that the 
greater number had not changed their course at times, and even, in many cases, 
run dry. While we readily admit that important effects have been produced by 
these numberless tributary influences, both on the course and on the volume of 
the river, it is clear that we must in general be content to follow the main stream. 
A careful study of the series of musical instruments, of which I gave but a scanty 
outline, reveals very clearly that numberless ideas borrowed from outside sources 
have been requisitioned and have affected the course of development. In some cases 
one can see fairly clearly whence these ideas were derived, and even trace back in 
part their own phylogenetic history ; but a complete analysis must of necessity 
remain beyond our powers and even our hopes. 
It will have been observed that, in the example of a sequence series which I 
have given, the early developmental stages are illustrated entirely by instruments 
belonging to modern savage races. It was a fundamental principle in the general 
theory of Colonel Lane Fox that in the arts and customs of the still living savage and 
barbaric peoples there are reflected to a considerable extent the various strata of 
human culture in the past, and that it is possible to reconstruct in some degree 
the life and industries of Man in prehistoric times by a study of existing races in 
corresponding stages of civilisation. His insistence upon the importance of bring- 
ing together and comparing the archeological and ethnological material, in 
order that each might serve to throw light upon the other, has proved of value to 
both sciences. Himself a brilliant and far-seeing archeologist as well as 
ethnologist, he was eminently capable of forming a conclusion upon this point, 
and he urged this view very strongly. 
The Earth, as we know, is peopled with races of the most heterogeneous descrip- 
tion, races in all stages of culture. Colonel Lane Fox argued that, making due 
allowance for possible instances of degradation from a higher condition, this 
heterogeneity could readily be explained by assuming that, while the progress of 
some races has received relatively little check, the culture development of other 
races has been retarded to a greater or less extent, and that we may see repre- 
sented conditions of at least partially arrested development. In other words, he 
considered that in the various manifestations of culture among the less civilized 
peoples were to be seen more or less direct survivals from the earlier stages or 
