IX 

 SOCIAL AND INDIVIDUAL EVOLUTION 



I DO not think that there is much reason to doubt that 

 the next great enterprise of human thought is to attempt 

 to comprehend man, and to form some consistent theory 

 of the social order which he has created in realizing his 

 own powers, and which he sustains in maintaining himself. 

 Indeed, it has already gone forth on this adventure, and 

 gone forth armed with presuppositions that are so new as 

 to give the inquiry great significance. Physical nature, 

 which has for many years been an object of surpassing 

 intellectual and practical interest, is likely in the near future 

 to find in man himself a not unworthy rival. We are at 

 last becoming aware of the fact that, side by side, or even 

 continuous with, the natural cosmos, there exists another 

 cosmos, a stable order of human relations which, like the 

 former, has its general uniformities awaiting to be inter- 

 preted by means of universal principles. The desire to 

 comprehend the laws of the order of civilized society, and 

 of directing and controlling to some extent the forces that 

 struggle and combine within it, is destined to deepen and 

 to spread. Wherever we turn we find men discussing what 

 are called "social problems." All the great organs of 



