CHAPTER VIII 



THE FUNDAMENTAL FORCES IN SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



Having thus obtained an outline picture of the 

 course of social evolution, we are prepared to con- 

 sider the more fundamental question of the nature 

 of the forces that have been concerned in the process. 

 Since human social evolution has been so sharply- 

 contrasted with the evolution of animals, we may 

 naturally expect that the principles concerned may 

 be quite different. In the pursuit of this question 

 we may best develop the matter by the consideration 

 of two general topics: 1. What phases of human 

 attributes have been responsible for this peculiar 

 development of society? 2. What general laws of 

 nature have directed and controlled this evolution ? 



Human Evolution Has Been Mental Rather than 



Physical 



In trying to determine upon what phase of human 

 nature his evolution has been founded we must first 

 make a further contrast between the development 

 of man and that of other animals. If we try to 

 remove ourselves from the scene of action and take 

 a view in perspective, we find the contrast a most 

 extraordinary one. In regard to any other animal 

 the history of the species appears merely an incident 

 in the history of organic evolution. Species have ap- 

 peared, developed for a little, obtained a temporary 

 prominence and perhaps a local mastery over rivals, 

 distributed themselves more or less over the earth's 

 surface, and then vanished. No species of animal 

 seems to be anything more than an incident in the 



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