The Nature of Society 63 



with the poetic mind we hear Nature's varied 

 language, and grasp life's urgent progress 

 toward complete self-expression in universal 

 harmony and law — a movement that begins 

 in conflicting eddies, merging into larger 

 streams that seem to prophesy a greater ocean. 



5. The Essentials of Society 



As a description of the outward clashing of 

 the myriad forms of life, the factors involved 

 in the conflict, and the conditions determining 

 the results, Darwinism is admittedly true. But 

 with the beginnings of human society the 

 course of evolution changes so decidedly in 

 character that it can be no longer adequately 

 interpreted by the same philosophy. To begin 

 with, society arises as a reaction from the 

 individualism of biologic selection. It evolves 

 as a place of refuge from the storms of com- 

 petition. Its essence, then, is an antagonism 

 to the individualistic, selective struggle, and to 

 the egoism which that struggle engenders. It 

 demands from the individual devotion and 

 self-sacrifice to outweigh his selfishness. The 

 group may be in competition with other groups, 

 and the individual in the group may still be 

 subject to selective influences, yet society in 



