Page:Prolegomena to history- the relation of history to literature, philosophy, and science (IA prolegomentohist00teggiala).pdf/117

 The case, as affecting man, may be stated thus: if, in considering the evolution of humanity, we allow our attention to be engrossed by the details of documentary history, by "history" as it is written, by the conditions of life under which we ourselves are living, then, obviously, "change" will appear as the very essence of things. So, when we say "that the general idea of organic evolution is in great part just the idea of human history projected upon the natural world," we are applying in biology a concept derived from an undue preoccupation with what is, after all, but a fraction of human history ; and are ignoring, like all historians, the less mobile parts as "unhistorical" and negligible. If, on the other hand, we endeavor to take a broader view of human life, the element of "change" loses its preponderance, and that of "fixity"—to use Bagehot's word— of backwardness or barbarism, comes into prominence; for the vast majority of mankind, in the past as in the present, has been and still is relatively immobile. In the special case of human evolution, at least, the element of "fixity" may well become the fundamental problem of inquiry; and if we assume with the anthropologists that the mind of man is everywhere the same, it will be seen that the stationary character of backward and barbarous peoples is due to the presence of continuously operative restraints, while, on the other hand, advancement follows upon the loosening of these restrictions at a given moment of time— "most of the peoples who have played a great part in history, have as a matter of fact started their 'historical' period with something of a crisis, and period of rapid change."

"In spite of overwhelming evidence, it is most difficult for a citizen of Western Europe to bring thoroughly home to himself the truth that the civilisation which surrounds him is a rare exception in the history of the world." "The truth is that the stable part of our mental, moral, and physical constitution is the largest part of it, and the resistance it opposes to change is such that, though the variations of human society in a portion of the world are plain enough, they are neither so rapid nor so extensive that their amount, character, and general direction can- not be ascertained."