IMAGERY IN SOCIAL GROWTH 345 



must be checked, or rectified by adaptive changes and 

 compensating services elsewhere, before the organism 

 as a whole can proceed on its evolutionary way. Sim- 

 ilar unadaptive growths are constantly arising in hu- 

 man societies, correlated with some mental limitation, 



or mental peculiarity. 







No one, however, can accurately diagnose all the 

 contributory causes to the rise and decline of these un- 

 adaptable social growths; they are many and varied. 

 But from the biologist's viewpoint, it cannot be 

 doubted, I believe, that every great social upbuilding 

 has its impulse in some new birth of social vision, and 

 the finding of new ways and means of social coopera- 

 tion. We may call them religious, scientific, or artis- 

 tic revivals. In reality, they are ethical and moral 

 growths; enlarged visions of social Tightness, and en- 

 larged powers to act in a socially constructive way. 

 The real source of this impetus to growth, we can no 

 more discover than we can discover why a carbon 

 molecule builds itself up into complex structures, or 

 how a blade of grass grows. All we can do is to ob- 

 serve, as best we may, what conditions are right for 

 growth, help to make and keep them right, and draw 

 our dividends. 



The germinal idea within the seed coats of every 

 religious regeneration has been some phase of mutual 

 service between man and man, or between man and 

 his gods, reiterated and reemphasized as a new way 

 of salvation better adapted to more complex social con- 

 ditions, or to a society wherein the impulse to mutual 

 service and self-sacrifice has become neutralized, con- 

 fused, or evaded, or wherein, for some reason, rights 



