340 GRAND STRATEGY OF EVOLUTION 



only so far as it is not militant, but mutually service- 

 able within itself, like a gang of thieves living on the 

 profits of other people. 



A social system, mutually serviceable to its con- 

 stituents and to its foreign colleagues, embodies within 

 itself the principle of perpetual growth and immor- 

 tality. 



But that saving principle will not become a com- 

 pelling incentive to cooperative, self-saving action till 

 that fact is clearly recognized, or becomes intelligible, 

 or becomes for man what we call truth, or reality. 



In balancing the constructive value of contingent 

 profits and losses, the more immediate demands must 

 necessarily take precedence over the more remote, 

 otherwise there would be no saving basis to build upon. 



V. The Permanent Mental Incentive in Social Re- 

 generation 



A fundamental attribute of man, underlying all his 

 variability as an individual, is his sociability, or his 

 tendency when in contiguity like atoms to combine in 

 social molecules. For each human atom, according to 

 his personal peculiarities, finds thereby a larger sav- 

 ing usage for his strength and a better servant to his 

 weakness. 



The immediate result of association is a self-rein- 

 forcement, that may, or may not, be recognized. But as 

 this result is one of man's most frequent and impres- 

 sive experiences, it is one of the first truths to be im- 

 pressed upon his conscious life. 



Hence when this fact, or truth, or certainty, is 



