154 WHAT EVOLUTION IS 



and the ant, and we are astounded at 

 the instinctive capabilities of many 

 animals, but, when wx examine our- 

 selves closely, we find most of these 

 potentialities within us and a host 

 more of capacities of which no lower 

 creature seems ever to have dreamed. 

 In what respects has man lifted 

 himself so much above his neighbors? 

 Man is first of all a social organism. 

 He is banded together in families, 

 clans, and nations and, as thus organ- 

 ized, he resists the vicissitudes of life 

 vastly more successfully than he pos- 

 sibly could single handed. As an 

 organization, human society is in 

 many respects unique. Social life was 

 tried eons ago by the simpler animals 

 in a thousand dififerent ways; proto- 

 zoan colonies out of which sexuality 

 grew, sponge colonies and coral col- 

 onies which have had a hand in mould- 

 ing the earth's surface, insect colonies 



