lo Social Emnronment 



may be charged with having slighted the spir- 

 itual forces of history, but we will here briefly 

 summarize their story as they have told it, 

 reserving to a later chapter a statement of the 

 psychological aspects. 



The evolution of human society began long 

 before the dawn of authentic history, but the 

 general outlines of the story may be seen 

 through the dim light of archaeology and tra- 

 dition. At first, as man learned to adapt him- 

 self artificially to the hardships of varying 

 climates, he gradually spread over the habitable 

 parts of the globe. In this era his conflicts 

 were mainly with the wild animals, though 

 when strange tribes chanced to meet war would 

 likely result. Often in such conflicts men 

 hunted and ate the stranger as they hunted and 

 ate wild game. The first weapons to be used 

 were those lying nearest at hand, such as the 

 stone and the club. With these weapons the 

 early cave men crushed each other's skulls, as 

 the remains found under the glacial drift tes- 

 tify. But natural selection was obviously more 

 a matter of group -^fiiciency than of mere 

 individual superiority. The qualities of invent- 

 iveness, subordination to leadership, and con- 

 formity to custom came to have the utmost 



