54 
THE PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY. 
Mar., 1890. 
counting) because no spare hand remains to grasp and secure 
the fingers that are required for units.When 
bartering is going on, each sheep must be paid for separately. 
Thus, suppose two sticks of tobacco to be the rate of exchange 
for one sheep, it would sorely puzzle a Damara to take two 
sheep and give him four sticks.”* Evidently the Damara 
has the idea of unity, but he cannot disengage or abstract it 
from its visible and tangible representation. In the same 
way the morality of the savage is guided by no determinate 
principle. He feels that certain modes of conduct towards 
others are right, and that the opposite modes are wrong ; but 
the feeling is wavering, inconsistent, not understood even 
when most strongly manifested. What is enfolded in his 
nature requires to be elicited by stimuli from without, just 
as the seedling requires nutritive soil, air, and sunshine, 
before it can put forth leaves and flowers. 
Climate, the structure of the earth’s crust and the con¬ 
formation of its surface, the flora and fauna of the inhabited 
region, are so many factors in the physical and mental— 
hence in the social—life of the inhabitants. A warm and 
kindly climate favours the growth of an infant society, 
because it does not unduly strain the bodily strength, and so 
gives opportunity for the growth of the inventive and artistic 
faculties. But at a later stage a temperate or even a cold 
climate conduces to sturdier development by making demands 
on ingenuity and on industry, and bracing up mind and body 
to increased effort. The influence of useful or noxious plants 
and animals, of geological structure, and of the natural 
features of the country, must be taken into account. One 
tribe finding a rich soil and a fine climate will settle to agri¬ 
culture, while its neighbours lead the life of nomad shepherds, 
or continue to subsist by the chase. Imbued with the love 
of property—manifesting itself, alas ! as the love of plunder— 
a tribe which has outgrown its boundaries or exhausted its 
resources makes war upon neighbouring tribes, and throws 
all its intellectual and physical force into a rude military 
organisation. It comes out of its petty struggles strengthened 
and disciplined, headed by a strong chief with a group of 
picked warriors by his side. Law and custom grow up as 
they are needed ; language expands for the expression of new 
ideas; increase in numbers and greater social cohesion 
necessitate division of labour, and some kind of traffic, which 
again direct the inventive faculties of man to the improve¬ 
ment of his tools and the utilisation of the minerals which he 
* Principles of Sociology, Vol. I., p. 84. 
