Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/559

 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY 543

that under Menondjer, Hyrcania quite entirely remained in pos- session of Iran. A crowd of similar legends are met among the most dissimilar peoples; sometimes, for example, the ceded terri- tory is made to correspond to that area which might be traversed either by foot or by horse in one day. In all cases the limit is fixed by the power of penetration of a body placed in movement, in con- nection with the reaction which tends to arrest this movement at a point at which in reality it is only transformed, thus giving rise to new phenomena, which in their turn may bring about another movement.

Are not the facts relative to these very expressive primitive legends similar to the processes according to which today in inter- national law the limits of the territorial seas are fixed by the range of a cannon fired from the shore? Is not the range of a cannon like that of the social forces, always changeable and even pro- gressive, according to this way of expressing the limits? For example, where would be the territorial limits in the straits of Dover between France and England, if, as we can perceive, the cannon range from either side extend beyond the straits ? How- ever, for a great number of social forces more powerful than the cannon this is what happens every day under our eyes. It also explains how the military and political frontiers are always slower than, and in the rear of, the social forces, properly speaking. Always and everywhere the real frontier is extended up to the limit of the military force. But the blind theorists, through the superficial aspect of the military structure of civilizations in the bosom of which they live, have lost sight of the fact that the military force is not the only social force; that there are more energetic, more penetrating, more irresistible, and even more protective, forces than cannon balls and strategic obstacles. These other forces are truly expansive and civilizing, but their law is the same ; they also are limited within and without.

G. DE GREEF.

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM.

[ To be continued.]