560 NATURE CROWNED IN MAN 



transcends natural selection. We cannot accept the sugges- 

 tion that selective processes in mankind are not exclusively 

 automatic as they are in Nature, for it is an essential part 

 of our argument that they are not wholly automatic in the 

 lower sphere. It was not indeed by taking thought that the 

 ancestors of leopards changed their spots so that their de- 

 scendants had a garment of invisibility when crouching in 

 the dappled light of the forest, but it may have been at least 

 horse-sense that led their descendants to form a habit of 

 choosing the places where the illumination suited them. We 

 have already argued that w^henever an animal takes an active 

 share in its own evolution, the process ceases to be wholly 

 automatic. What differentiates man is his attempt to con- 

 trol his evolution according to an ideal. A rational and some- 

 times an ethical note is sounded. 



We may give another illustration of our meaning. Isola- 

 tion and consequent inbreeding have probably meant a good 

 deal in a purely biological way in fixing the dominant char- 

 acters of tribes and stocks. But the facts of history warrant 

 us in saying that it is a false simplicity to omit as a factor 

 in the unification, at least as important as the bonds of kin- 

 ship, the unanimism wrought out by a common hope or am- 

 bition. It is a fallacious biologism to think that human 

 evolution can be accounted for without a recognition of Man 

 as a rational and social personality. 



The first reason why we cannot regard the history of 

 human societary forms as simply a continuation of infra- 

 human organic evolution is that in society we have to deal 

 with integrates which work as wholes apart from the func- 

 tion of the component individuals. An approximation to 

 this on the instinctive plane of evolution is to be found in 

 the bee-hive, in ant-hills, and in termitaries. A far-off hint 



