This is the precise case with the whole family of arrested
civilisations. A large part, a very large part, of the world seems
to be ready to advance to something good--to have prepared all the
means to advance to something good,--and then to have stopped, and
not advanced. India, Japan, China, almost every sort of Oriental
civilisation, though differing in nearly all other things, are in
this alike. They look as if they had paused when there was no reason
for pausing--when a mere observer from without would say they were
likely not to pause.

The reason is, that only those nations can progress which preserve
and use the fundamental peculiarity which was given by nature to
man's organism as to all other organisms. By a law of which we know
no reason, but which, is among the first by which Providence guides
and governs the world, there is a tendency in descendants to be like
their progenitors, and yet a tendency also in descendants to DIFFER
from their progenitors. The work of nature in making generations is
a patchwork--part resemblance, part contrast. In certain respects
each born generation is not like the last born; and in certain other
respects it is like the last. But the peculiarity of arrested
civilisation is to kill out varieties at birth almost; that is, in
early childhood, and before they can develop. The fixed custom which
public opinion alone tolerates is imposed on all minds, whether it
suits them or not. In that case the community feel that this custom
is the only shelter from bare tyranny, and the only security for
they value. Most Oriental communities live on land which in theory
is the property of a despotic sovereign, and neither they nor their
families could have the elements of decent existence unless they
held the land upon some sort of fixed terms. Land in that state of