60 The Place of Consciousness in Evolution 



artificial selection of the unfit ; and so these negative prin- 

 ciples begin to work directly in the teeth of progress, as 

 many writers on social themes have recently made clear. 

 This being the case, some other resource is necessary be- 

 sides physical heredity. On my hypothesis it is found in 

 the common social standards of attainment to which the 

 individual is fitted to conform and to which he is com- 

 pelled to submit. This secures progress in two ways : 

 First, by making the individual learn wJiat the race has 

 learned, thus preventing social retrogression, in any case ; 

 and second, by putting a direct premium on variations which 

 are socially available. 



Under this general conception we may bring the bio- 

 logical phenomena of infancy, with all their evolutionary 

 significance : the great plasticity of the mammal infant as 

 opposed to the highly developed instinctive equipment of 

 other young ; the maternal care, instruction, and example 

 during the period of helplessness ; and the very gradual 

 attainment of the activities of self-maintenance in condi- 

 tions in which social activities are prominent or essential. 

 All this stock of the evolution theory is available to confirm 

 this view. 



And to finish where we began, all this is through that 

 wonderful instrument of acquisition, consciousness ; for 

 consciousness is the avenue of all social influences. 



