RELATION OF SOCIOLOGY TO BIOLOGY. 331 



therefore mutual physical dependence, until the constituent life is finally 

 identified with the social function : this corresponds with the ideal of 

 material organization, 3. The reassertion of the independent person- 

 ality of the constituents, and the alliance of these by moral instead of 

 physical bonds — by mutual love instead of mutual dependence : this 

 has no correspondence in material organization, since it becomes pos- 

 sible only through a higher nature than the material. There are, there- 

 fore, two modes of subordinating the individual life to the race — one 

 by mutual dependence, the other by mutual love. The former destroys 

 our personality, the second enhances it. He who loses his independent 

 life by the first method, loses it irretrievably ; he who loses it by the 

 second method, shall find it again. The former is the ideal of material 

 organization, and has been partially attained in many forms of society, 

 ancient and modern ; the latter is the ideal of Christian ci\'ilization. 

 Society is even now in a state of transition between the two. 



(b.) Progress. — The more fundamental law of differentiation limits, 

 and in the minds of many persons confuses, the idea of progress. 

 Progress as a law of evolution does not imply advance to successively 

 higher points along every line and in every part ; but only that the 

 highest parts become successively higher, and the whole becomes suc- 

 cessively greater. The constituent parts of a developing organism, 

 starting from a common level, are some of them advanced to the dignity 

 of brain-cells, and become the instruments of thought^ while others 

 sink to the condition of kidney-cells, whose function is only to secrete 

 urine. But the highest cells become higher and higher, and the whole 

 organism becomes greater and more complex. 



Again, in the development of the organic kingdom, from the ear- 

 liest oreoloffical times until now, if w^e could trace the several lines of 

 genetic descent, we would doubtless find as many examples of retrograde 

 as of advance movement. This fact has given rise to most of the dis- 

 pute concerning the existence or non-existence of a law of evolution in 

 the organic kingdom. This dispute is mostly the result of a misappre- 

 hension of the law of evolution. In the process of differentiation of 

 the organic kingdom from a common level, the lines of descent went 

 some upv/ard, some downward, some sideways, every way and any way 

 to reach some unoccupied place and subserve some different function 

 in the economy of Nature, but the dominant classes became successive- 

 ly higher, and the whole organic kingdom successively greater and more 

 highly organized. The tree of life sent its branches, some upward, some 

 sideways, some downward, any way and every way for room and light, 

 but its top went higher and ever higher, and its whole clustering branches 

 became broader and ever broader. 



So is it in society : if we could trace all the lines of genetic descent, 

 starting from a common level, some would go upward, some downward, 

 some this way and some that ; in social function some would advance 

 to the dignity of philosophic thinkers — the teachers of the race — and 



