210 SOCIAL HEREDITY AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



that these enemies allowed themselves, one after the 

 other, to be overcome without making any apparent 

 effort to form organizations which would enable 

 them to make a front against a common foe. The 

 suicidal tendency toward splitting into small sections 

 was the ruin of the peoples with whom Rome fought, 

 and unity was her force against them. The reason 

 for all this was that the enemies of Rome were 

 absolutely incapable of forming any unions which 

 could hold together long enough to oppose victorious 

 Rome. The Indians of North America formed many 

 a coalition against the white invaders, and these 

 coalitions were sometimes wide in extent and force. 

 But while the Indians were able to combine, and felt 

 the necessity for combining, they could not hold to- 

 gether; for no sooner did such combinations appear 

 than they broke to pieces again. If they had 

 remained intact and presented a united front against 

 the few white invaders, the results of the European 

 invasion would have been different. But to hold 

 together was a simple impossibility among them, and, 

 breaking to pieces, they disappeared before small 

 but compact force of the invaders. What was it that 

 enabled Rome to make such headway and rendered 

 it impossible for her enemies to combine against 

 her *? What was it, a few centuries later, which made 

 it possible for the new nations to arise out of the 

 disjointed fragments of European peoples? What 

 gave the few white men their victory against the 

 hosts of North American Indians 1 



We have already sufficiently indicated where we 

 must look for the disintegrating forces of society. 

 They are to be found in what we have called individ- 

 ualism. As the powers of central authority have 



