EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL STRUCTURES 843 



method of constructing is an artificial method. This consists in 

 first forming in the mind an ideal of the finished product, and then 

 arranging the materials in such wise that they will realize that pro- 

 duct. The end is seen from the beginning. It is a final or teleological 

 method. Nature also constructs, but the method of nature is just 

 the opposite of that of man. There is no foresight, and the materials 

 are added in small increments until the structure is completed. 

 The method of nature is a differential or genetic method. All 

 natural structures are of this class, and social structures are natural 

 structures. 



But natural structures are not so simple as might appear from 

 this statement. They do not consist in the mere mechanical appo- 

 sition of the raw materials brought into material contact. This 

 would produce only a mass, a heap, a mixture; it would not pro- 

 duce a structure. A structure implies a certain orderly arrangement 

 and harmonious adjustment of the materials, an adaptation of the 

 parts and their subordination to the whole. How does blind nature 

 accomplish this? It does it according to a universal principle, and 

 it would be impossible to convey any clear conception of the process 

 of social structure without first setting forth, at least briefly, the 

 character of this principle. 



It is not only in human society that natural or genetic structures 

 are formed. The organic world affords perhaps the most striking 

 example of the process, and all organisms not only consist of such 

 structures but are themselves organic structures. Every other 

 department of nature furnishes examples, but there is one other 

 in which the process is so simple that it is easily grasped by the 

 average mind. This is that of astronomy. Each one of the heavenly 

 bodies is a natural structure formed by the raw materials and blind 

 forces of nature, and yet the heavenly bodies are highly symmetrical 

 and perfectly ordered structures. The solar system and all other 

 star systems are also such structures, in which there is perfect 

 adjustment of parts and subordination of the parts to the whole. 



This last example will serve a good purpose in explaining the 

 principle, because we are already familiar with the facts of centrifugal 

 and centripetal forces which constitute the principle by which the 

 systems are maintained. .This is, in fact, the principle that underlies 

 all genetic structures ; but in other departments there are many other 

 elements to be considered which complicate the process. The principle 

 may then be stated in its most general form as the interaction of anta- 

 gonistic forces. In astronomy these are reduced to the two classes, 

 the centrifugal and centripetal; but in other departments there 

 are many antagonistic forces, which need not directly oppose one 

 another, but which modify and restrain one another in a great 

 variety of ways. Any one of these forces considered by itself alone 



