olithic man would have had a contempt for Cobden
rivalling that of Mr. Chamberlain himself. He did not take the incursion
of the foreigner "lying down." One pictures him in the mind's eye:
unscientific, perhaps, but active to a degree difficult to conceive in
these degenerate days. Now up a tree hurling cocoa-nuts, the next moment
on the ground flinging roots and rocks. Both having tolerably hard
heads, the argument would of necessity be long and heated. Phrases that
have since come to be meaningless had, in those days, a real
significance.

When a Palaeolithic politician claimed to have "crushed his critic," he
meant that he had succeeded in dropping a tree or a ton of earth upon
him. When it was said that one bright and intelligent member of that
early sociology had "annihilated his opponent," that opponent's friends
and relations took no further interest in him. It meant that he was
actually annihilated. Bits of him might be found, but the most of him
would be hopelessly scattered. When the adherents of any particular Cave
Dweller remarked that their man was wiping the floor with his rival, it
did not mean that he was talking himself red in the face to a bored
audience of sixteen friends and a reporter. It meant that he was
dragging that rival by the legs round the enclosure and making the place
damp and untidy with him.

Early instances of "Dumping."

Maybe the Cave Dweller, finding nuts in his own neighbourhood growing
scarce, would emigrate himself: for even in that age the politician was
not always logical. Thus _roles_ became reversed. The defender of his
country became the alien, dumping himself where he was not wanted. The
charm of those early political arguments lay in their simplicity. A
child could have followed every point. There could never have been a
moment's doubt, even among his own followers, as to what a Palaeolithic
statesman really meant to convey. At the close of the contest the party
who considered it had won the moral victory would be cleared away, or
buried neatly on the spot, according to taste: and the discussion, until
the arrival of the next generation, was voted closed.

All this must have been harassing, but it did serve to pass away the
time. Civilization has brought into being a section of the community
with little else to do but to amuse itself. For youth to play is
natural; the young barbarian plays, the kitten plays, the colt gambols,
the lamb skips. But