INVENTION AND PRODUCTION 23 I 



third principle is conation or social effort which, when directed to 

 material ends, belongs to our division " active material adapta- 

 tion " and results in achievement. Every dynamic action, he 

 holds, has three effects: to satisfy desire, to preserve or con- 

 tinue life or to modify the surroundings. This last effort results 

 largely from the projection of desire into the future, and is 

 directiy proportional to the distance between desire and its ful- 

 fihnent. The effort put forth to attain this delayed satisfaction 

 is the cause of the transformation of the environment, — a process 

 summarized by the term achievement.^ Active adaptation or 

 anthropoteleology, or again, individual and social telesis come 

 into prominence only among the most highly cultured men, with 

 most people and groups the satisfaction of desire being the only 

 conscious aim of endeavor.^ In the analysis of conation two 

 elements are emphasized, human desire and the instinct of work- 

 manship the latter imder normal conditions leading to the satis- 

 faction of desire by work which is pleasure-giving.^ As man 

 always follows the line of least resistance or preponderant mo- 

 tives, and as the satisfaction of material wants is of primary 

 importance for survival, there must be a surplus of wealth before 

 the higher wants can be satisfied and a surplus always furnishes 

 the conditions favorable for the development of cultural wants.* 



In the discussion of individual and social telesis Professor Ward 

 contributes to the fourth division of our subject, active spiritual 

 adaptation, the former leading man to react on the mores of the 

 group in the line of variation,^ the latter making it possible for a 

 group so to co-operate as not only to transform their material 

 environment, but their spiritual environment as well in the in- 

 terest of increased well-being.^ 



In his analysis of the function of the genius. Ward holds that 

 here we have an illustration of the non-advantageous faculties of 

 mind, though they are the outgrowth of those that are advan- 

 tageous. The origin of the genius is not to be explained according 



^ Pure Sociology, pp. 248 f. 



2 Ibid., pp. 465, 545, 555 f. Human invention, however, antedates history, 

 ibid., pp. 515 f. 



' Ibid., p. 245. * Ibid., p. 244. 



* Ibid., p. 59. • Ibid., ch. XX. 



