LAWS CONTROLLING HUMAN SOCIAL HEREDITY 339 



undesirable member of society, no matter what may 

 have been his innate powers. 



When we realize, as we are now in position to do, 

 the tremendous influence of this factor of social 

 heredity in the development of humanity, we are led 

 to the feeling that, after all, the primary distinc- 

 tion between man and animals has been that man 

 alone has developed the power of utilizing this new 

 force. Among animals social inheritance is a factor 

 of slight moment, but with man of the greatest. The 

 real stimulus which has acted upon man to produce 

 his wonderful development in contrast to animals 

 has been the utilization of the new force of social 

 inheritance. It is this which has produced civiliza- 

 tion, and it is civilization that really separates man 

 from the lower orders of nature. The utilization by 

 man of this new force has been brought about as the 

 result of his growing organization and centraliza- 

 tion, and this is due to the instincts which, in gen- 

 eral, belong to the ethical nature. It is thus the 

 instinct which leads to the willingness of the individ- 

 ual to sacrifice his own interests that constitutes 

 the real stimulus under whose influence human evo- 

 lution has taken place. 



Human evolution has thus been a double one. The 

 laws which had been at work for countless ages pro- 

 ducing a world full of its numerous animals and 

 plants produced also the first human animals with 

 some points of strength and some of weakness. But 

 among other features of this new production there 

 were certain Instincts that led to social life and to 

 a spirit of self-sacrifice. These new characters in 

 time brought to the front the force of social heredity 

 and a new era of evolution began, ending in the 



