SOCIOLOGY FROM A BIOLOGIST'S POINT OF VIEW 531 



tribute to our general idea of nature without suggesting 

 practical applications, it is impossible for a sensitive 

 and thoughtful person to study his species without 

 wishing to act. It is also difficult or impossible for 

 him to believe that the methods of scientific investiga- 

 tion cover the whole field. He will never assent to the 

 proposition that those whom he loves can be described 

 or defined wholly in terms of anatomy and physiology, 

 physics and chemistry. In his reaction against such 

 conceptions, he is likely to make the serious mistake 

 of undervaluing the contributions of biology and their 

 meaning for society. The young, however, are at once 

 relatively plastic and callous, plastic because their 

 lives are developing, and many choices are still open ; 

 callous because experience has not yet filled the imagi- 

 nation, and many things consequently possess little 

 suggestive significance. The educational process in- 

 evitably works an injury when it creates the habit of 

 thinking without acting, where action should naturally 

 follow. It is apparently only too possible almost or 

 quite to eliminate the desire to act. It is for. this reason 

 that sociology, as an educational subject, should be 

 something more than "pure science," should be 

 dynamic and purposeful, though it stirs the waters of 

 discontent. 



4. The biologically trained individual sees in society Adaptation 

 a persistent attempt, more or less unconscious, to attain 

 harmonious relations with the environment. This 

 environment changes from year to year, largely through 

 the actions of man himself; hence progress is inevitable. 

 The growth of human law, "from precedent to prece- 

 dent," typifies the accumulation of experience, trans- 

 lated into rules of action. Athwart all this comes 

 modern science, with her novel discoveries, and com- 



