SOCIAL EVOLUTION AS A BIOLOGICAL PROCESS 275 



not on the same plane with the hereditary determin- 

 ing factors which operate among insects. Therefore 

 the scale of human communities proves to be only 

 a part of the wider range of organic associations in 

 general a part which can be definitely placed in such 

 a wider scheme and so become more intelligible in 

 itself. 



In all departments of social evolution, progress is 

 made by the twofold process of combination and differ- 

 entiation. We have dealt with detailed instances, and 

 now it is profitable to treat the process in a larger way, 

 with a view toward the possibilities of the future. 

 The Thirteen Colonies, somewhat similar in their 

 earlier economic activities, united for mutual support 

 much as wolves combine to form a pack. Later, as 

 circumstances directed, they differentiated into farming 

 or manufacturing or commercial organs of the body 

 politic, each to some degree freeing itself of the functions 

 undertaken by others, and becoming thereby more 

 dependent than before upon those that specialized in 

 different ways. As in the history of the insects in a 

 growing wasp community and of savages evolving into 

 barbarians, the original condition of relative indepen- 

 dence passed into a state of interdependence and coop- 

 eration. In like manner, if nature remains the same, as 

 there is every reason to believe it will, nations now sepa- 

 rate will unite to make more complex combinations that 

 will be veritable empires of world-wide scope. Countries 

 on opposite sides of an ocean are now more closely con- 

 nected by lines of communication and means of travel 

 than were the Carolinas and New England a century 

 ago. Diplomatic activities give many signs of a grow- 



