THE STUDY OF SOCIOLOGY. 609 



which, in every society, must be fulfilled to a considerable extent before 

 it can hold together ; and which must be fulfilled completely before 

 social life can be complete. Each citizen has to carry on his activities 

 in such ways as not to impede other citizens in the carrying on of their 

 activities more than he is impeded by them. That any citizen may so 

 behave as not to deduct from the aggregate welfare, it is needful that 

 he shall perform such function, or share of function, as is of value 

 equivalent at least to what he consumes; and it is further needful that, 

 both in discharging his function and in pursuing his pleasure, he shall 

 leave others similarly free to discharge their functions and to pursue 

 their pleasures. Obviously, a society formed of units who cannot live, 

 without mutual hindrance, is one in which the happiness is of smaller 

 amount than it is in a society formed of units who can live without 

 mutual hindrance. And obviously the sum of happiness in such a 

 society is still less than that in a society of which the units voluntarily 

 aid one another. 



Now, under one of its leading aspects, civilization is a process of 

 developing in citizens a nature capable of fulfilling these all-essential 

 conditions ; and, neglecting their superfluities, laws and the appliances 

 for enforcing them are expressions and embodiments of these all-es- 

 sential conditions. On the one hand, those severe systems of slavery, 

 and serfdom, and punishment for vagabondage, which characterized 

 the less-developed social types, stand for the necessity that the social 

 unit shall be self-supporting. On the other hand, the punishments for 

 murder, assault, theft, etc., and the penalties on breach of contract, 

 stand for the necessity that, in the course of the activities by which 

 he supports himself, the citizen shall neither directly injure other citi- 

 zens, nor shall injure them indirectly, by taking or intercepting the 

 returns their activities bring. And it needs no detail to show that a 

 fundamental trait in social progress is an increase of industrial energy, 

 leading citizens to support themselves without being coerced in the 

 harsh ways once general ; that another fundamental trait is the pro- 

 gressive establishment of such a nature in citizens that, while pursuing 

 their respective ends, they injure and impede one another in smaller 

 degrees ; and that a concomitant trait is the growth of governmental 

 restraints which more effectually check the remaining aggressiveness. 

 That is to say, while the course of civilization shows us a clearer recog- 

 nition and better enforcement of these essential conditions, it also shows 

 us a gradual moulding of humanity into correspondence with them. 



Along with the proofs thus furnished that the biological law of 

 adaptation, holding of all other species, holds of the human species, 

 and that the change of nature undergone by the human species since 

 societies began to develop, has been an adaptation of it to the condi- 

 tions implied by harmonious social life, we receive the lesson, that the 

 one thing needful is a rigorous maintenance of these conditions. While 

 all see that the immediate function of our chief social institutions is 



VOL. III. 39 



