48 GRAND STRATEGY OF EVOLUTION 



V. The Decrease of Chance and the Increase of 

 Compulsion 



In all these cases, whether in nature as a whole, or 

 in any one or more of her constituent individualities, 

 the prevailing characteristic of growth, progress, or 

 evolution, is the decline of chance, isolation, and uni- 

 formity, along gradients which converge more and 

 more, and for longer and longer periods, toward a 

 vanishing point in zero; while the gradients which 

 represent the increase of diversity, cooperation, law and 

 order and compulsion rise more and more toward a 

 maximum in infinity. 



It is the local, as well as the general progress of 

 these constructive processes over the destructive ones, 

 which we speak of as the triumph of "good" over "evil," 

 or of the "right" way of doing things over the "wrong" 

 way, and the goal toward which this progress moves 

 we speak of as perfection. 



In the initiation of new individuals, it may well be 

 that finding the constructive way is largely due to the 

 "chance" distribution of creative elements and forces. 

 The result, when the way is found, cannot be due to 

 "chance." It was determined by some previously es- 

 tablished virtue in the cooperating agents. 



When, for example, elements unite to form com- 

 pounds, or cells to form organisms, or men to form so- 

 ciety, the union may or may not be due to chance, ac- 

 cording to the limitations we put on our definition of 

 "chance." But the inherent capacity in each case so 

 to unite, and the inherent qualities of the products of 

 union, are definitely determined by the pre-established 

 qualities of the cooperating units. 



