Note 125 — PART II. SPECIAL PSYCHOLOGY.
Reading edition
The discussion is to be found in his Civilisation in England (vol. i., chap. iv.). It may be summed up in the very questionable sentence quoted by him from Cuvier, “Le bien qu’on fait aux hommes, quelque grand qu’il soit, est toujours passager; les vérités qu’on leur laisse sont éternelles.” He thus counts for nothing the institutions which have arisen from an original effort, a new growth of moral sentiment. The saying is a purely academic aphorism.