CHAPTER XIX. 



POLITICAL RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 



576. In the foregoing chapters little has been 

 concerning the doctrine of Evolution at large, as re-illus 

 trated by political evolution ; though doubtless the observant 

 reader has occasionally noted how the transformations de 

 scribed conform to the general law of transformation. Here, 

 in summing up, it will be convenient briefly to indicate their 

 conformity. Already in Part II, when treating of Social 

 Growth, Social Structures, and Social Functions, the outlines 

 of this correspondence were exhibited ; but the materials for 

 exemplifying it in a more special way, which have been brought 

 together in this Part, may fitly be utilized to emphasize afresh 

 a truth not yet commonly admitted. 



That under its primary aspect political development is a 

 process of integration, is clear. By it individuals originally 

 separate are united into a whole ; and the union of them into 

 a whole is variously shown. In the earliest stages the groups 

 of men are small, they are loose, they are not unified by 

 subordination to a centre. But with political progress comes 

 the compounding, re-compounding, and re-re-compounding of 

 groups until great nations are produced. Moreover, with that 

 settled life and agricultural development accompanying poli 

 tical progress, there is not only a formation of societies 

 covering wider areas, but an increasing density of their popu 

 lations. Further, the loose aggregation of savages passes into 

 100 



