Tradition 103 



characters.' This is especially true where intelligent and 

 imitative adaptations are involved, as in the case of in- 

 stinct. This ' may give the reason, e.g., that instincts are 

 so often coterminous with the limits of species. Similar 

 creatures find similar uses for their intelligence, and 

 they also find the same imitative actions to be to their 

 advantage. So the interaction of these conscious factors 

 with natural selection brings it about that the structural 

 definition which represents species, and the functional defi- 

 nition which represents instinct, largely keep to the same 

 lines ' (from an earlier page). 



6. It seems proper, therefore, to call the principle of 

 organic selection 'a new factor'; for it gives a method, 

 hitherto undeveloped, of accounting for the parallelism 

 between the progressive gains of evolution and the con- 

 tinued accommodations of individuals. The ontogenetic 

 modifications are really neiv, not preformed nor guaranteed 

 in tJie variations with which the individual is born; and 

 they really recur in succeeding generations, although not 

 physically inherited. 



4. Tradition l 



B. Social Transmission.- -There follows also another 

 resource in the matter of evolution. In all the higher 

 reaches of development we find certain cooperative or 

 ' social ' processes which directly supplement or add to the 

 individual's private accommodations. In the lower forms 

 it is called gregariousness, in man sociality, and in the 

 lowest creatures, except plants, there are suggestions of a 

 sort of recognition and responsive action between creatures 



1 This term has come into general use since this was written to designate 

 what is transmitted socially, but not physically : see below, Chap. XI. I. 



