FUNDAMENTAL FORCES IN SOCIAL EVOLUTION 207 



foundation of civilization, and if we search for the 

 controlling principle of evolution, we must ask what 

 it is that has made it possible for him, century after 

 century, to advance into higher stages of organiza- 

 tion. 



The Foundation of Organization 



The growth of nations has been the result of a 

 struggle between two opposite tendencies. It is no 

 more evident that there has been a tendency for sepa- 

 rate groups of men to unite than it is that there has 

 been a corresponding tendency for the groups thus 

 formed to break to pieces again. To understand 

 social evolution we must ask why men unite and 

 why the combinations so universally show a tendency 

 to break to pieces. This search immediately resolves 

 itself into two other questions : 1. What are the forces 

 which bring about increasing centralization and 

 organization? 2. "What are the forces that hold these 

 organizations together and whose absence results in 

 disintegration? These two forces, as we shall find, 

 are radically different, for the influences which bring 

 men into organizations and the forces which hold 

 them in lasting compact are by no means the same. 



Forces Which Produce Union — The forces which pro- 

 duce a tendency toward organization are so apparent 

 as to need only the briefest notice. At the outset it 

 is certain that the social instinct of man must have 

 been an important impetus toward union. Mankind, 

 as well as other animals, shows a pleasure in the com- 

 pany of other beings of the same species, and this 

 social instinct very likely lay at the foundation of 

 the first combinations of men into families and small 

 groups of families. But other factors even more 



