progress, and the climate and general environment seems to have been no
less favourable than in Europe and America. We see how the Arabs made
great conquests and enriched the world with many patient and accurate
observations and then came to a standstill and remained as they are
to-day in serene contentment, strangers to the very idea of progress.
Can it be said that mental capacity and collective will-power were
lacking in any of these people? On the contrary, it is admitted that
they were possessed of mental powers as great as those of the restless
Europeans of to-day who are rushing onward in a ceaseless pursuit of
change, a pursuit made possible only by continuous victory over the
forces of conservatism, and this victory, as I think, is gained not
through the outward circumstances of climate and geographical
surroundings, but through a "divine discontent" which is kindled, we
know not how, in the leaders of the world, regardless of time and place,
as says the poet of one whom he hails as the deliverer of his country:

"A flaming coal
Lit at the stars and sent
To burn the sin of patience from her soul,
The scandal of content."

It is this inward fire rather than any outward pressure that prompts the
captive spirit to break loose from the fetters of the unmoving giant,
custom, the greatest of all tyrants, who grows stronger as he grows
older. The difficulty of reversing the ways and conditions that have
been induced from birth is tremendous, and progress has never been
possible without breaking away, always at great risk to the innovators,
the stoned prophets of all ages, from the powerful grip of hoary and
hallowed custom, which is the essence of conservatism. Initiative
implies the breaking of the commandment which enjoins everyone to honour