22 x ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 



annual movement; and by the states of heat, moisture and 

 electricity in the surrounding medium; and by the chemical con- 

 ditions of the atmosphere, the waters, the soil, etc. I need only 

 observe that the effect of these influences is even more marked in 

 sociology than in biology, not only because the organism is more 

 complex, and its phenomena of a higher order, but because the 

 social organism is regarded as susceptible of infinite duration, so 

 as to render sensible many gradual modifications which would be 

 disguised from our notice by the brevity of individual life." 1 

 Comte, as we have noted, did not accept Lamarck's theory of the 

 development of species as a result of the response of the organism 

 to environmental influences, and in social evolution he believed 

 that inherent race qualities and the general forces behind the 

 evolutionary process were vastly more potent. 2 



Active Material Adaptation. Man's ability to control the 

 forces of nature in the interest of his well-being is with Comte one 

 of the chief tests of progress. 3 " All human progress," he says, 

 " political, moral or intellectual, is inseparable from material 

 progression, in virtue of the close interconnection which, as we 

 have seen, characterizes the natural course of social phenomena. 

 Now, it is clear that the action of man upon nature depends 

 chiefly on his knowledge of the laws of inorganic phenomena, 

 though biological phenomena must also find a place in it." 4 



Passive Spiritual Adaptation. Comte's whole doctrine of rela- 

 tivity is but another way of expressing this principle. He holds 

 that the genius is an age-product; 5 that the preponderating 

 opinions of the people determine morals and politics; 6 and he 

 goes so far as to say that " the happiness of every man depends on 

 the harmony between the development of his various faculties and 

 the entire system of the circumstances which govern his life "; 

 i. e., on both material and spiritual adaptation. 7 



Comte might almost be termed a social realist in his insistence 

 that the individual apart from society is a mere abstraction 

 whereas humanity, or again the general human mind is real. 



1 Positive Philosophy, ii, p. 116. 4 Ibid., ii, p. 118. 



2 Ibid., ii, pp. 92 f. 6 Ibid., ii, p. 92. 



3 Ibid., i, pp. 223, 363, 393; ii, pp. 57, 118. 6 Ibid., i, p. 14; ii, pp. 30, 165. 



7 Ibid., ii, p. 87. Cf . Caird, The Social Philosophy and Religion of Comte, p. 25. 



