790 Causes and Course of Organic Evolution 



social life then shown by male and female, even in the most 

 competitive and predatory species, is a proenvironal phe- 

 nomenon in which the production and rearing of a future 

 offspring stimulates to abundant and varied social develop- 

 ments. Here also we believe is found the reason for the wide- 

 spread socialism typical of many animal groups. For, since 

 proenvironment, in its most fundamental expression, is the 

 compounding of two or more environal stimuli into a resultant 

 stimulus that starts a new line of satisfied progress for the 

 individual, so when applied to social organization it becomes 

 the resultant of all the stimuli that are found by long and 

 repeated trial to be best alike for each individual, and for 

 the group of which the individual is the unit. 



So the building of nests above ground, the excavation of 

 nests below the surface, or the hollowing of trees into nests 

 by ants and other insects; the gradual elaboration of complex 

 loghouses and dams by beavers; the planning and erection 

 of a lake-dwelling by medieval man are all proenvironal acts 

 that at first were largely of a simple and individualistic kind, 

 but now have become, by oft repeated trial, by slow effort 

 after ever better results, and by recognized benefit of united 

 action in elaborating designs that would the better house a 

 social group, cooperative social results that have elevated 

 alike the individual and the social race. 



That struggle for existence and selective survival operate 

 in social colonies of animals up to man himself is attested 

 by abundant and exact evidence. But these factors are largely 

 — almost wholly — dependent on and sequent to the activity 

 of those already referred to. So heredity, environment, pro- 

 environment, selection, and reproduction have together evolved 

 and are evolving social organization. 



But for man the phase of proenvironal action that has most 

 powerfully aided in social and socialistic organization has been 

 Religion. We desire again, however, to have it clearly under- 

 stood that by this we mean, not the false concretions, the ac- 

 cessory schemings of cunning men, the vague hypotheses that 

 have been foisted on mankind as revelations from heaven, 



