188 SOCIAL HEREDITY AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



legalitv. Little by little, as the centuries have 

 passed, the people have demanded and obtained for 

 themselves a recognition which in early centuries 

 they did not receive. Modern civilization tells us 

 that the individual is supreme, and that the purpose 

 of government is to carry out the will of the people. 

 Sometimes the monarch, or the capitalist, tries, and 

 for a time succeeds in disregarding the individual; 

 but not for long. The people of the Aryan race 

 refuse to allow this to continue. In the modern 

 nation it is not the glory of the nation or the love of 

 the king that is the reason for government. Human- 

 ity is placing the greatest good of the greatest 

 number ahead of all other objects. The interest of 

 the people is a mightier force even than patriotism. 

 Under these conditions the general position of man- 

 kind is almost reversed. Whereas in earlier ages the 

 people existed for the benefit of the government and 

 its leaders, now the government exists for the benefit 

 of the people. The will of the king is of significance 

 in modern nations only as it works out the welfare 

 of the people. 



The IxDivrDUAL versus Society 



Thus in the history of civilization there has been 

 a parallel growth of two opposite principles. One 

 is the growth of society resulting from centraliza- 

 tion; the other is the increasing value set upon the 

 individual. These two principles are apparently 

 opposed, the one falling as the other rises. Society, 

 at least in the form in which it has actually devel- 

 oped, seems to have been ever trying to curb the 

 individual. Society has constantly tried to make man 

 its slave. The individual, on the other hand, has no 



