290 SOCIAL HEREDITY AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



highly developed. It is only among nations where 

 the town or city plays an important part in molding 

 the characters of the people that this phenomenon 

 which we call civilization develops to its highest 

 point. Speaking broadly, we may say that the high- 

 est civilization is found in cities. To be sure, in 

 cities and towns there are many characters which we 

 regard as excessively low. Criminals flourish to a 

 greater extent than in smaller communities, and the 

 ignorance and brutality of the slums are proverbial. 

 But these facts do not interfere with the general 

 conclusion that the advance of civilization, and even 

 the development of moral nature, has been closely 

 associated with the organization of towns and cities. 

 In such communities alone do we find a high divi- 

 sion of labor, one of the primary factors of civiliza- 

 tion. Eefinement and culture are not as a rule found 

 among primitive peoples, or in small villages : neither 

 are they found among hermits, pioneers, or isolated 

 farmers. Nowhere do they become as highly devel- 

 oped as in the large cities. In the city education, 

 upon which civilization is growing more and more 

 dependent, reaches its fullest significance. Indeed, 

 it is impossible for educational systems to develop 

 in country districts, and large communities alone 

 present a possibility for the education which lies at 

 the basis of modern civilization. Civilization has, 

 indeed, developed parallel with the towns. The 

 ancient Aryans had no towns, but lived a scattered 

 life over a sparsely inhabited country, and their 

 civilization was of the very lowest order. They 

 developed none at all until they were brought into 

 conditions where the city or town began to have its 

 influence upon the character of the people. At the 



