SOCIAL EVOLUTION AS A BIOLOGICAL PROCESS 243 



tions of a social nature to which we are now to turn, 

 because no individual can exist without having its Hfe 

 directly influenced, not only by other kinds of organisms, 

 but even more intimately by other members of its own 

 species. In a single day's activity we who are citizens 

 of a great metropolis are forced into contact with almost 

 countless other Hves, glancing off from one and another 

 after influencing them to some degree, and gaining our- 

 selves some impetus and stimulus from our longer or 

 shorter intercourse with each of them. Our varied 

 social relations are so many and obvious that it is quite 

 superfluous to specify them as essential things in human 

 life. For the very reason that they are so obvious and 

 constitute so large a part of our daily life, we are in 

 danger of conceiving them to be exclusively human ; we 

 unconsciously regard them as different from anything 

 to be found elsewhere and quite independent of the 

 biological laws controUing the human unit. 



On the contrary, as we trace the development of 

 social organization from its earhest rudiments it be- 

 comes ever clearer that evolution has been continuous, 

 and that during later ages there has been no suspension 

 of the natural laws w^hich earher produced the human 

 type of organism. The lessons we have learned are by 

 no means to be ignored from this point forward ; all of 

 our conceptions of human biological history must be 

 kept in mind, for anything new that we may learn is 

 superadded to the rest, — it cannot disturb or alter 

 the foundations already laid. It is even more important 

 to reaUze that the same scientific method is to be em- 

 ployed which has been so fruitful heretofore. It has 

 given us interesting facts; it has indicated the most 



