SOCIETAL EVOLUTION 151 



he needs but to plan and "create" ; pass resolutions and regula- 

 tions; think out Utopias in bed and then rise and gird himself 

 to their realization; abolish property, or the family, or govern- 

 ment, or religion. Naturally he is taken by the theory that 

 societal evolution is by individual purposeful action. Naturally 

 he regards insistence upon the control exerted by spontaneous, 

 automatic, and impersonal forces as an assault upon his "free 

 will." 



Sometimes, in a crisis, the verities stand forth and enforce 

 to themselves an attention which they do not get in ordinary 

 times. Many people have been for some time perplexed and 

 in weak despair because their comfortable little formulas have 

 cracked and broken under the weight of explanation laid upon 

 them. Perhaps it is a favorable occasion to offer the conten- 

 tion that "social theory" is not wholly academic after all. 



