330 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



lation and interaction between the different kinds constituting a fauna 

 and flora still more complex, and a struggle for life still fiercer than 

 now exists, then is the ideal not yet reached. 



So society, also, has reached its present highly-organized condition 

 only gradually, by a process of differentiation. In the early stages of 

 society the constituent elements are all alike, and each performs, though 

 in an imperfect manner, all the social functions necessary in this early 

 condition. As society advances, the pursuits of man become more and 

 more different, the social function of each more and more limited, until 

 each is confined to one social function only. Concurrently with this 

 differentiation of pursuits, the independent life of the constituents, ab- 

 solutely perfect at first, is merged more and more into the common life 

 of society, with increasing mutual dependence, as in the animal organ- 

 ism ; and yet, alas ! with increasing selfish antagonism and competitive 

 strviggle for life, as in the organic kingdom. Here, too, from the purely 

 material point of view, the ideal, as in the animal organism, is com- 

 plete loss of independent life — the complete merging of the individual 

 independence into the common life of society — the identification of in- 

 dividual life with social function. Here, too, from the same point of 

 view, the ideal, as in the organic kingdom, is the highest high and the 

 lowest low, and the extremest diversity. The higher becomes the high, 

 the lower sinks the low, and the more extreme the diversity — the more 

 complete the loss of individuality and merging of constituent life into 

 social function — the more perfect the mutual dependence, and yet the 

 fiercer the antagonism and struggle — the nearer do we approach the 

 ideal. This is manifestly the ideal of material organization, and there- 

 fore of society, from a purely material point of view. If this ideal is not 

 only undesirable but impossible — if our whole better nature shrinks 

 asfhast from its realization — it is because it takes no cognizance of our 

 higher and distinctively human nature, i. e., our spiritual or moral na- 

 ture ; it is because the law of our spiritual or moral is different and 

 even antagonistic to the law of our animal or material nature. The 

 relation of material imits is by mutual dependence, and yet antago- 

 nism : the relation of moral units is by mutual sympathy and love. 

 The existence of a moral nature limits the laws of a purely material 

 organization. The essential difference, therefore, between the animal 

 organism and the social organism is that, in the former, the constitu- 

 ents exist only for the community, while in the latter the community 

 exists only for the constituents. This transcendent value of the con- 

 stituents is manifestly the result wholly of the moral or spiritual nature 

 of man. 



There are, then, three stages of social advance : 1. Gregariousness^ 

 or loose, unorganized association of s^»^^/ar constituents : this corre- 

 sponds in biology to the simplest form of cellular aggregation. 2. 

 Gradually increasing differentiation and consequent merging of the 

 constituent life into the common life by limitation of function, and 



