22 SOCIAL HEREDITY AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



sify these social attributes under the following heads : 



1. Language. Beyond question, this is a social and 

 not an organic characteristic. Language is impos- 

 sible except where social intercourse is found. It 

 develops with society and it in turn develops society. 

 If we try for a moment to imagine what the human 

 race would be without language, we see plainly that 

 it would not be man. The individuals might be ex- 

 ceptionally shrewd, cunning animals, but the very 

 essence of manhood would be lacking. 



2. Writing and Printing. These clearly are lan- 

 guage carried many steps beyond speech. If by 

 some miracle we could blot out writing and printing, 

 man would drop back into savagery in a single gen- 

 eration. That these attributes are social rather than 

 organic is self-evident. 



3. The Moral Sense. By this term we mean that 

 phase of human nature that leads man to a willing- 

 ness to sacrifice his own interests to another. Here 

 clearly belong the religious instincts. It is upon 

 this attribute that society is founded, since civiliza- 

 tion would be impossible without it. That moral 

 sense is a gift to mankind from his social relations 

 may not seem certain, and it will be considered in a 

 later chapter. 



4. Customs and Government. It has been the 

 existence of a willingness to be governed that makes 

 possible the union of great bodies of men into coher- 

 ent units. It is this which makes it possible for man 

 to accomplish the gigantic changes on the face of 

 nature that he has been bringing about during all his 

 history. 



5. Knoivledge. Under this broad term we include 

 the vast accumulation of information which the race 



