The Nature of Society 69 



was itself the embodied idea, whereas through 

 man the idea finds inanimate expression be- 

 yond the physical body and escapes the hard 

 necessities of organic evolution. Thus does 

 thought, transcending the flesh, become the 

 highest product of creation, and the world of 

 the mind is built up. 



The beginnings of the social heritage must 

 have arisen from the instinctive stages with 

 the earliest habits of conscious association. 

 Groups were held together by the blood bond, 

 and their conduct necessarily became regu- 

 lated; perhaps some recognized form of the 

 family may have been the first advance over 

 purely instinctive conduct, since sex regulation 

 was fundamental to permanent association. 

 Inventions of use in industry and warfare 

 gradually accumulated, and often spread from 

 one group to another. The process depended 

 upon the evolution of the intellect and its 

 accompanying expression in language. There 

 must, of course, have been a concurrent bio- 

 logical selection of individuals better adapted 

 to use the social heritage, but this selection, 

 being itself determined by the prevailing cul- 

 ture, gradually falls into a secondary place. 

 Eventually, it seems, biological selection must 



