Al'rKXDiX 303 



the group has received rough confirmation by natural selection 

 working gi'oupwise. In such a case the dominating mode of the 

 social mind is one of formal like-mindedness. Sometimes the 

 selective dcatii-rate is more clearly seen, as when society de- 

 liberately destroys the oll'ender against its ways. Again, the 

 impulsive action of a mob crushes the life of an offender, Some- 

 times eonventions of the leisure class and higher standards of 

 I'omfort delay nuirriage among certain strains of the i)opulatiou 

 so that tlie\' inuitipl\' more slowly than the s([ualid and reckless. 

 Sometimes war reverses the process of survival of the physically 

 tit, who, first chosen by strict military standards, are later 

 slaughtered wholesale by machinery, like so uuu-h meat in a 

 grinder, and the weak are left l)ehind to i)erpetuate the race. 

 Again, a formal and custom-bound i-eligious system, intolerant 

 of independent thought, ruthlessly tortures and kills the ration- 

 ally intellectual. And thus the human variate is caught and 

 crushed to death in soeial machinery that other men of other ages 

 have by their colleetive behavior set in motion, and thus the in- 

 novator, tiie non-conformist, the offender, and, in fact, any who 

 dare origimite or advoeate a new idea are executed, lynched, 

 stoned, hanged, or burned to death by torture, for the mills of 

 society grind ruthlessly if not consistently fair. 



But selection in society is not always of tiie bloody- type that 

 kills, and it often fails to mold the race by establishing a selective 

 birth-rate. Social selection takes place on the psychic plane also. 

 Squatters ujwn the path of some social institution may be merely 

 thrust aside, while the procession proceeds upon its ponderous 

 way. Innovators and offenders against the custonmry are simply 

 constrained or coerced into approved behavior. It is not always 

 necessary to crush the delinquent lifeless in order that his anti- 

 social act or new idea may be eliminated. 



The manifestations of social selection upon the psychic plane 

 are manifold. Sometimes the offender is separated from the 

 jn-ivileges of association with his fellows by expulsion from 

 society. This jn-ocess takes the social forms of ostracism and 

 imprisonment, the political forms of banishment, exile, and out- 

 lawry, and the ecclesiastical forms of excommunication and 

 interdict. In all these wavs the harmful idea and conduct are 



