Many, we believe, were the gains that rewarded the arboreal
apprenticeship of man's ancestors. Many, likewise, were the results of
leaving the trees and coming down to the solid earth--a transition which
marked the emergence of more than tentative men. What great steps
followed?
Some of the greatest were--the working out of a spoken language and of
external methods of registration; the invention of tools; the discovery
of the use of fire; the utilisation of iron and other metals; the taming
of wild animals such as dog and sheep, horses and cattle; the
cultivation of wild plants such as wheat and rice; and the irrigation of
fields. All through the ages necessity has been the mother of invention
and curiosity its father; but perhaps we miss the heart of the matter if
we forget the importance of some leisure time--wherein to observe and
think. If our earth had been so clouded that the stars were hidden from
men's eyes the whole history of our race would have been different. For
it was through his leisure-time observations of the stars that early man
discovered the regularity of the year and got his fundamental
impressions of the order of Nature--on which all his science is founded.
If we are to think clearly of the factors of human progress we must
recall the three great biological ideas--the living organism, its
environment, and its functioning. For man these mean (1) the living
creature, the outcome of parents and ancestors, a fresh expression of a
bodily and mental inheritance; (2) the surroundings, including climate
and soil, the plants and animals these allow; and (3) the activities of
all sorts, occupations and habits, all the actions and reactions between
man and his milieu. In short, we have to deal with FOLK, PLACE, WORK;
the _Famille_, _Lieu_, _Travail_ of the LePlay school.
As to FOLK, human progress depends on intrinsic racial
qualities--notably health and vigour of body, clearness and alertness of
mind, and an indispensable sociality. The most powerful factors in the
world are clear ideas in the minds of energetic men of good will. The
differences in bodily and mental health which mark races, and stocks
within a people, just as they mark individuals, are themselves traceable
back to germinal variations or mutations, and to the kind of sifting to
which the race or stock has been subjected. Easygoing conditions are not
only without stimulus to new departures, they are without the sifting
which progress demands.
As to PLACE, it is plain that different areas differ greatly in their
material resources and in the availability of these. Moreover, even when
abundant material resources are present, they will not make for much
progress unless the climate is such that they can be readily utilised.
Indeed, climate has been one of the great factors in civilisation, here
stimulating and there depressing energy, in one place favouring certain
plants and animals important to man, in another place preventing their
presence. Moreover, climate has slowly changed from age to age.
As to WORK, the form of a civilisation is in some measure dependent on
the primary occupations, whether hunting or fishing, farming or
shepherding; and on the industries of later ages which have a profound
moulding effect on the individual at least. We cannot, however, say more
than that the factors of human progress have always had these three
aspects, Folk, Place, Work, and that if progress is to continue on
stable lines it must always recognise the essential correlation of
fitter folk in body and mind: improved habits and functions, alike in
work and leisure; and bettered surroundings in the widest and deepest
sense.