332 SOCIAL HEREDITY AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



the primary impulses of mankind tell him that self- 

 interest should stand ahead, the social organism is 

 insisting with greater and greater force each genera- 

 tion that the interests of others should be placed 

 upon a par with, or perhaps in advance of, self- 

 interests. It is the demand of society that thus 

 creates duties. It is society that decides what is the 

 best type of living to fit its demands, and as a conse- 

 quence the possibility of failing to live according to 

 such demands becomes a breach of law. There could 

 be no crime if there were no law. Social inheritance 

 has produced crime, because it has distinctly form- 

 ulated certain rules and regulations in accordance 

 with which men should live in their relation with 

 each other. Social heredity inevitably leads toward 

 altruistic relations in contradistinction to the egoistic. 

 Ideals Advance Faster Than Realization. — For reasons 

 already pointed out, it is evident that social heredity 

 increases in extent with each generation, and that 

 every century sees the heritage which is handed to 

 subsequent generations on a higher and a broader 

 plane than the previous century. The demands of 

 society in the twentieth century are far ahead of the 

 demands of society two thousand years ago; they 

 are even greatly ahead of the demands of society 

 a century ago. Every new demand made by society 

 upon the human race is a new attempt to subvert and 

 contradict the primary instinct of self-seeking. The 

 fundamental egoistic impulses in the human race 

 have always been and still are immensely powerful 

 in controlling human action; and as a result the 

 activities of mankind fall far behind the rules set 

 for it by the advanced altruistic principles of any 

 particular age. The average of the human race 



