20 SOCIAL HEREDITY AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



waked up sleeping China and altered the history of 

 the world, while the raid planned by the other was 

 forgotten almost as soon as it was over. The reason 

 for the difference was that civilization had placed 

 in the hands of the one immense forces to be wielded, 

 while the other had little at his command beyond his 

 own individual power. The one by means of the 

 forces placed in his hands by society turned the 

 destiny of the world ; the other had an influence that 

 hardly extended beyond his own vision, because the 

 society in which he lived could not give him such 

 powers. A man standing alone is a feeble individ- 

 ual. Imagine the most intellectually endowed indi- 

 vidual brought up without any contact with his 

 fellow men. His life would be merely an existence, 

 and at its close it would have meant no more than 

 the life of an ape. But that same man placed in a 

 community with other men, by utilizing their com- 

 bined powers, may do a work that will live for all 

 time. Man thus owes his powers not to what he him- 

 self possesses, but, rather, to the fact that he lives 

 in such relations to others that the united accom- 

 plishment of all may be relied upon to accomplish 

 any work that promises mutual utility. 



By this time the contrast that we wish to draw will 

 be evident. Man shares with the rest of the animal 

 kingdom certain characteristics. These include his 

 physical nature, a body made of a series of organs 

 similar to those which are possessed by his close 

 allies among the lower animals. They include, too, 

 whatever of instinct he may possess; for while 

 instincts do not play a very large part in human life, 

 they are not wanting. With animals too man shares 

 a brain, and his brain is closely similar to that of 



