The Nature of Society 65 



the predominant factor of evolution. And 

 because of this, human society becomes a 

 progressive instead of a static cooperation, 

 relatively independent of biologic selection. 

 Through society, man without essential bio- 

 logic change extends his senses and his powers 

 into mechanical forms that far surpass the 

 creations of the lower species, and enters 

 through trade into cooperations that are world- 

 wide in their scope. Thus the vital harmony 

 which seems struggling for expression in the 

 prehuman stages reaches its birth, and man 

 becomes a center of organization drawing into 

 the sweep of his system the physical elements 

 of the planet, much of the animal and vege- 

 table kingdoms, and the lives of his fellows. 

 To be sure, mankind is as yet close to the 

 brute, his earthy chrysalis still clings to him, 

 his systems are limited and imperfect; but the 

 spirit within him and the creative ideals which 

 are urging him on point to an eventual world- 

 society progressively interpenetrating nature 

 by a knowledge of its laws. 



4. Human Nature and the Social Heritage 



The biological basis of human society is, 

 then, not a matter of fixed instincts, but of 



