its important contribution toward the sustentation of the human race. Modern science, of course, through its knowledge of chemistry and plant and animal life, has vastly enlarged the quantity of foods and improved their quality. Since food-getting must always be the principal vocation of mankind one may associate with it the chief forms of occupation, such as the wild and precarious life of the hunter, the care of flocks and herds, the pursuit of agriculture, and finally the occupations involved in the trades, in commerce, manufacturing, and professional pursuits. The control or ownership of land, also, which is fundamental for food purposes, suggests a threefold classification; namely, (1) land in primitive times when the notion of the ownership of land and other forms of property was unknown; (2) that period in which land and other property were considered as held or owned by the community as a whole; and (3) that in which land and other property are for the most part considered to be the personal possessions of individuals.

Still other writers prefer to trace civilization through the varying forms of the family and indicate a threefold development: (1) a metronymic stage, characterized fundamentally by kinship traced through the mother, and the absence of permanency in family life; (2) a patronymic, or patriarchal, stage in which kinship is traced through the male, and the power of the paternal head of the family tends to become absolute; (3) the modern stage in which kinship is traced through both parents and emphasis is placed on a permanent marriage relationship between one man and one woman.

Other writers would trace civilization by a study of

'Except such personal possessions as weapons, tools, ornaments, and clothing.

the development of religion through its historic stages, such as animism, ancestor and nature worship, polytheism, monotheism, and pantheism. Others may trace it in the several stages of morality, starting from primitive notions of utility and its opposite, as shown in the customs of savages who stress a moral code made up mainly of tabus, or prohibitions, to later stages characterized by the growing freedom of individuals from excessive social regulation and control. Or one may, with Herbert Spencer, think of early civilization as dominated by the warrior and the priest and gradually passing from a militaristic towards an industrial stage emphasizing human industry and world peace.

It is hardly necessary to enumerate other explanations of development set forth by sociological writers. The very fact that the progress of civilization can be indicated under so many aspects shows that these are but specialized phases of one great movement of a unified social life, manifesting itself under many different forms, but all alike teaching that mankind is rising from primitive savagery to higher and more ethical, more intellectual stages of development. Even the most advanced peoples of modern centuries have not yet attained the highest possible development. The best of them are low and savage when compared with the ideals of social perfection taught by the noblest representatives of humanity in ages past and present. Further development is still possible, and every wise utilization of the materials and forces of nature and every upward step in intellectual and artistic attainment will aid in the furtherance of moral and social progress.

Conditions That Affect Social Development. From the foregoing survey it may be seen that physical

and psychical conditions largely affect the development of social institutions, including that of government. So important are these influences that for the student of politics further explanation becomes necessary. One might note, first, the influence exerted on political development by the climate, by the fertility and mineral wealth of the soil, and by the contour and configuration of the land with its seacoasts, harbors, rivers, and lakes, so necessary for the promotion of domestic and foreign commerce. Consideration should then be given to the population, noting its numbers and its virility and physical stamina. In the third place should be studied the qualities of the mind, such as keenness of insight and the powers of mental perseverance and adaptability. A flexible type of mind, able to balance the old and the new, and to decide wisely under changing conditions, is a factor of prime importance in political development.

The chief points under these three topics may now briefly be indicated.

I. Physical Factors.-Abundant Food Supplies Essential.-Communal life, which is essential for political growth, develops only when abundant food supplies attract masses of population. Communities therefore first developed in fertile river valleys, on well watered plains with warm and equable climate, where game was plentiful, pasturage possible, and agriculture easily productive. These natural advantages, however, are not sufficient. There are other needs besides that of food. Even in primitive savagery there was a demand for hard woods, flint and jade, colored earths, clay, fibrous plants, and simple luxuries. Locations furnishing such supplies developed a rude system of barter with hordes less richly supplied. As civilization advanced, metals came to be

necessities, and mines were sought for in all directions. Explorers and traders established centers of commerce wherever mines were found. Great city states and empires rose one after the other, rising as they became the centers of trade between wealthy and populous regions, and falling as other and better regions were discovered or shorter and safer routes were developed. In this way rose and fell the empires of the East and the later civilization of Persia, Greece, and Rome, as the mining wealth of India, Arabia and Africa, Asia Minor, Southeast Europe, and the outlying countries fringing the Mediterranean were one after the other discovered and utilized.

Expansion Through Commerce.-The domestication of animals and the utility of some of them as beasts of burden developed the caravan and the long overland routes of Asia. Water transportation along the dangerous shores of southern and southwestern Asia lagged far behind, but when civilization reached the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, first, Crete and then Phoenicia, the earliest of sea powers, pushed northward through the Ægean Sea and westward to Italy, Phoenician sea merchants voyaging even as far as the Atlantic seeking metals, establishing colonies, and carrying with them the flourishing civilization of the East. After the Phoenicians came the Greeks, born colonists and keen traders, who, building on the contributions of ancient civilization, with versatile mind continually sought after "some new thing" and thereby developed the highest type of ancient civilization. After them came an empire of exploitation, a nation with a developed capacity for war, administration, order, and law, which conquered and absorbed one after another ancient civilizations and barbarian tribes, bring

ing all under the common yoke of Rome. But it was a nation lacking insight, invention, and the scientific attitude of mind; it became ultra-conservative and failed through lack of adaptability; it knew in economics only exploitation and devastation; and with all its political experience and its capacity for law and administration, it failed to establish the state on sound economic foundations. The collapse of the Western Roman Empire drove civilization back to the East and to the South, where it flourished for nearly a thousand years longer, at Constantinople, in Persia, and in northern Africa. Western Europe barely held its own for five hundred years, but then came in the tenth century the discovery of metals in the Harz Mountains, the rise of German and Italian cities, and the Crusades. European civilization was greatly aided by the Crusades through the destruction of many turbulent robber barons, the revival of commerce with Egypt and the East, and the consequent inflow of the intellectual attainment and culture of Greek and Saracenic civilizations. The use of the compass opened new routes from China to the Red Sea and the knowledge of it rendered possible the discovery of America. This discovery, coupled with the Fall of Constantinople, transferred the trading center of Europe from Italy and the Rhine to western Europe, for the mineral wealth of Mexico and South America poured into its cities, and the great expansive movement westward in commerce and colonization gave new vigor and energy to its seafaring nations.

Expansion Through Manufactures.-When the era of steam began in the eighteenth century, first the demand for cotton and cotton goods, and then for modern machinery, gave England and the United States of