CIVILIZATION AS ACCUMULATED FORCE. 609 



France the population increases more slowly than in other European 

 nations, the average duration of life is greater. The higher the 

 average duration of life, the greater the accumulation of productive 

 forces. The reason why war is so fatal to civilization, even among the 

 conquerors, is that it destroys those who are at the age most favorable 

 for production. 



"We have now to consider the third element of civilization, as found 

 in man himself, and this is the most important of all, namely, the in- 

 tensity of force. Two equal quantities of individuals will not in the 

 same space of time produce equally, for each may not possess the same 

 energy, the same intensity of life or force. Individual values are de- 

 termined by the development of organs, functions, and faculties, which 

 come in part from exercise and culture, and in part from inheritance. 

 On the one hand, we have the habits acquired by the individual, which 

 are modified by his surroundings ; and, on the other hand, we have 

 habits rooted in the family, nation, or race, and which become heredi- 

 tary. The latter is called an instinct, and embraces all those senti- 

 ments which men have in common, their intensity being in proportion 

 with the social progress which produced them. The influence of these 

 inherited sentiments is very great, though it is frequently overlooked. 

 If a man is what he is as distinct from all others in virtue of individual 

 development and personal character, we are men having our specific 

 and race character from inheritance. We are possessed of the appara- 

 tus of vision, hearing, language, circulation, digestion, because these 

 functions are so many habits that have become essential to the human 

 race. 



These habits and instincts are not all good, for vices too are habits. 

 This means only that the action of our organs and faculties sometimes 

 takes a direction unfavorable to society or humanity. The body has its 

 diseases, the understanding its errors, and the will its vices. Entire 

 races have sometimes depraved instincts, which forbid their advancing 

 beyond a certain degree of civilization, while others fail to attain that 

 intellectual development which is the condition of all ulterior progress. 

 Now, what is the criterion for determining what habits are good and 

 favorable for civilization ? We need only apply our general formula, 

 and then we shall see that those habits have a civilizing influence which 

 tends to increase man's forces, the power of his faculties, his value as 

 an intellectual or material producer. On the contrary, those habits 

 which have a tendency to deprave the individual, weaken his faculties, 

 or efface his moral instincts, are vices which, when generalized and 

 transmitted, whether by education or by inheritance, lead a people tow- 

 ard decay, decrepitude, and extinction. The ideas, instincts, and moral 

 habits of the individual, are ever in competition, and, when this compe- 

 tition tends toward perfection, the element which wins in the struggle 

 always gains power by selection. 



It was the fashion during the eighteenth century to regard the 

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