208 SOCIAL HEREDITY AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



forceful have, even in early time, played an impor- 

 tant part. The necessity for protection against en- 

 emies, either wild animals or men, has undoubtedly 

 been a great factor in the building of early organiza- 

 tions. To what extent this has been a conscious 

 factor need not now concern us ; but its influence has 

 sometimes been even greater than that of the 

 struggle for individual existence. Again, the great 

 advantage that men acquire in obtaining food by 

 being combined in companies, contributed to the 

 formation of early organizations. The individual 

 man has a greater difficultj^ in caj^turing wild animals 

 and obtaining food from nature than does a combina- 

 tion of men united for the common jDuri^ose. A de- 

 sire for conquest was a factor of no less significance. 

 The war spirit seems inbred in human nature, and, so 

 far as we can judge from the evidence, war has 

 always been a prominent factor in human action, 

 more prominent, even, in the lives of primitive man 

 than in recent years. In the warfare of man with 

 man greater conquests are always possible for bodies 

 of men than for individuals, and this war spirit and 

 war habit, universal among low races, was perhaps 

 the most potent force of all in producing organiza- 

 tion. Organization for war purposes inevitably pro- 

 duced the chieftain, and with the chieftain came the 

 desire for military glory, for power, and for riches. 

 The chieftain and his aids would always obtain a 

 greater share of the spoils of war, and, since the 

 desire for riches and power is an appetite which 

 grows with exercise, it becomes more and more 

 potent with every increment. Personal ambition is, 

 then, a most potent factor in producing centraliza- 

 tion and organization. 



