228 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 



. . . The spiritual part of civilization is at least conditioned 

 upon material civilization." " It does not derogate from its 

 worth/' he continues, " to admit that without a material basis it 

 cannot exist; . . . but the moment such a basis is supplied it 

 comes forth in all ages and races of men. It may therefore be re- 

 garded as innate in man and potential everywhere, but a flower 

 so delicate that it can only bloom in the rich soil of material pros- 

 perity. . . . No amount of care devoted to it alone could make 

 it flourish in the absence of suitable conditions, and with such 

 conditions it requires no special attention. It may therefore be 

 dismissed from our consideration, and our interest may be cen- 

 tered in the question of material civilization, and this will be 

 understood without the use of the adjective." ^ 



" Involved in the idea of achievement," ^ he says, " is that of 

 permanence. Nothing that is not permanent can be said to have 

 been achieved, at least in the sense in which that term is here em- 

 ployed. Now, material goods are all perishable. . . . Achieve- 

 ment does not consist in wealth. Wealth is fleeting and 

 ephemeral. Achievement is permanent and eternal. . . . The 

 products of achievement are not material things at all. As said 

 before, they are not ends but means. They are methods, ways, 

 principles, devices, arts, systems, institutions.^ In a word, they 

 are inventions, ... It is anything and everything that rises 

 above mere imitation and repetition. Every such increment to 

 civilization is a permanent gain, because it is imitated, repeated, 

 perpetuated, and never lost. It is chiefly mental or psychical, 

 but it may be physical in the sense of skill." ^ He enumerates 

 and discusses other forms of achievement such as language, 

 literature, philosophy, science, the invention of tools, instruments, 

 utensils, missiles, traps, snares and weapons crowned by the prod- 

 ucts of the modern era of machino-facture with power of artificial 



^ Pure Sociology, p. i8. ^ /jj^.^ pp. 22 ff. 



' Institutions, however, are not permanent as he himself says on p. 31. The 

 only permanent thing is the process itself or intelligence that is its source. Cf. 

 Bradley, Appearance and Reality, ch. V; Bowne, Metaphysics, ch. III. For criticism 

 of this doctrine of achievement, see Gillette, American Journal of Sociology, July, 

 1914. 



* Pure Sociology, p. 25. 



