BIOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY 69 



tween man and the rest of the cosmic process, in 

 spite of man's genesis from that same cosmic process, 

 an insuperable and essential opposition, a difference 

 of aim or direction which had turned the original 

 bridge into a barrier. ^ 



As a result, not only did the particular comparison 

 between society and an organism fell into disrepute, 

 but also all attempts to draw far-reaching conclusions 

 from biology to human affairs. 



But the original contention still remains, and is 

 logically unassailable. Man is an organism descended 

 from lower organisms ; his communities are com- 

 posed of units bound together for mutual good in a 

 division of labour in the same way as are the cells of 

 a metazoan : he can no more escape the effects of 

 his terrestrial environment than can other organisms. 

 There is therefore reason to suppose that the pro- 

 cesses of evolution in man and man's societies on 

 the one hand, and in lower organisms on the other, 

 must have something important and indeed funda- 

 mental in common, something which if we could 

 but unravel would help us in the study of both. 



The correlation of biology with sociology is 

 important not only in itself, but also as part of a 

 more general correlation of all the sciences. The 

 correlation of the sciences is of particular import- 

 ance to-day for a double set of reasons. The rise 



^ For a remarkable critical history of biological thought 

 during this period, see Radl, '09. 



