Since the days of the primeval
microbe it has happened that a few were chosen and many were left
behind. There was no progressive element in the advancing few
that was not shared by the stagnant many. The difference lay in
the environment. Let us see if this principle applies to the
history of civilisation.
In the last chapter I observed that, with the rise of human
intelligence, the cultural environment becomes more important
than the physical. Since human progress is a progress in ideas
and the emotions which accompany them, this may seem to be a
truism. In point of fact it is assailed by more than one recent
historical writer. The scepticism is partly due to a
misunderstanding. No one but a fanatical adherent of extreme
theories of heredity will deny that the physical surroundings of
a race continue to be of great importance. The progress of a
particular people may often be traced in part to its physical
environment; especially to changes of environment, by migration,
for instance. Further, it is not for a moment suggested that a
race never evolves its own culture, but has always to receive it
from another. If we said that, we should be ultimately driven to
recognise culture, like the early Chinese, as a gift of the gods.
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