CHAPTER VII 



THE GENERAL DIRECTION OF PROGRESS 



We are now ready to approach tlie center of our 

 discussion, and we try to disentangle from this brief 

 survey of the history of civilization the principles 

 that underlie it. In our effort to comprehend social 

 evolution it is principles rather than details that we 

 are after. In this kaleidoscopic series of changes it 

 is by no means easy to determine the fundamental 

 principles concerned in the phenomena, but if we 

 compare animal evolution, as it has been disclosed by 

 study during the last half century, with the evolution 

 of man, we shall be able to extract from the various 

 investigations a few salient features which are begin- 

 ning to stand forth more and more prominently. 



A Universal Teistdency toward Centralization 



The most patent fact in human history is the uni- 

 versal tendency of civilization in the direction of 

 increasing organization and centralization. This has 

 been marked from the beginning by a continual 

 growth in the size of the combinations of men asso- 

 ciated with each other. History has been a constant 

 triumph of union over disunion, a constant destruc- 

 tion of types incapable of union. Starting with the 

 family, this increase in the size of organizations pro- 

 gressed regularly until it has reached the twentieth 

 century world, divided into a few great nations, 

 together with a number of small, unimportant ones 



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