394 GRAND STRATEGY OF EVOLUTION 



action than independence, or complete freedom of 

 action could give; that is, it must result in increased 

 ability in each individual to render services to the other. 

 In this sense, then, municipal law is an extension into 

 social groups of the profitable system of organic inhibi- 

 tion and acceleration, so familiar to the student of ani- 

 mal life ; its really vital growth represents the accumu- 

 lating profits of socially constructive agreements, saved 

 by their Tightness, and saving those who use them 

 rightly. 



The life of the state is wholly dependent on the actual 

 fulfilment of these mental agreements, however vaguely 

 they may be expressed, or formulated. 



Contained in, or underlying all these agreements in 

 thought and act, is the principle of a cooperative cove- 

 nant, involving the partial surrender of sovereignty 

 and the assumption of obligations, for some ulterior 

 end, or result, or purpose. 



The covenant may be religious, as wherein it is 

 understood that God is willing, or agrees, to save and 

 magnify His people, if they are willing to believe in 

 Him, or agree to obey and glorify Him. In effect, 

 science enters into a similar covenant with Nature. For 

 Nature virtually says to man: "Know me, obey me, and 

 serve me, and I will serve you and augment you." And 

 so she does. In the same way, the State virtually says 

 to her citizens : Serve me, or serve one another, and all 

 of us will serve you. And so on, down the whole cate- 

 gory of written, implied, or wholly unconscious cove- 

 nants of social life involved in law abiding citizenship, 

 in family relations, business integrity, credit, neigh- 

 borly conduct, and all that is implied in honor, and in 

 the conduct of a gentleman. The contract always im- 



