POLITICAL ORGANIZATION IN GENERAL. 157 



Contrasting the two, we thus see that, while the acquirement of 

 function by inheritance conduces to rigidity of structure, the acquire- 

 ment of function by efficiency conduces to plasticity of structure. 

 Succession by descent favors the maintenance of that which exists. 

 Succession by fitness favors transformation, and makes possible some- 

 thing better. 



As previously pointed out, "complication of structure accompa- 

 nies increase of mass," in social organisms as in individual organisms. 

 When small societies are compounded into a larger society, the con- 

 trolling agencies needed in the several component societies must be 

 subordinated to a central controlling agency : new structures are re- 

 quired, Recompounding necessitates a kindred further complexity in 

 the governmental arrangements ; and at each of such stages of increase 

 all other arrangements must become more complicated. As Duruy re- 

 marks : " By becoming a world in place of a town, Rome could not 

 conserve institutions established for a single city and a small territory. 

 . . . How was it possible for sixty millions of provincials to enter the 

 narrow and rigid circle of provincial institutions ? " The like holds 

 where, instead of extension of territory, there is only increase of popu- 

 lation. The contrast between the simple administrative system which 

 sufficed in old English times for a million people and the complex 

 administrative system at present needed for many millions sufficiently 

 indicates this general truth. 



But now, mark a corollary. If, on the one hand, further growth 

 implies more complex structure, on the other hand changeableness of 

 structure is a condition to further growth ; and, conversely, unchange- 

 ableness of structure is a concomitant of arrested growth. Like the 

 correlative law just noted, this law is clearly seen in individual organ- 

 isms. On the one hand, the transition from the small immature form 

 to the large mature form, in a living creature, implies that not the 

 whole only, but all the parts have to be changed in their sizes and 

 connections ; every detail of every organ has to be modified ; and this 

 implies the retention of plasticity. On the other hand, w^hen, on ap- 

 proaching maturity, the structures are assuming their final arrange- 

 ment, their increasing definiteness and firmness constitute an increasing 

 impediment to growth : the unbuilding and rebuilding required before 

 there can be the needful readjustment become more and more difficult. 

 So is it with a society. Augmentation of its mass necessitates change 

 of the preexisting structures, either by incorporation of the increment 

 with them, or by their extension through it. Every elaboration and 

 further settlement of the structures presents an additional obstacle to 

 this ; and, when rigidity is reached, such modifications of them as 

 increase of mass would involve are impossible, and increase is pre- 

 vented. 



Hence a significant relation between the structure of a society and 



