Al'I'KXDlX .-jorj 



from staiuliiig in llu; way (;t" .slowly cliaiijriiij,' ciisloiii, oi" lias 

 (laslicd liiiiisclt' ay:aiiist the iiiii)i'nc'li'al)lc surface of an aiicifiit 

 institution, nv is killed by the impulsive action of a nioh. In the 

 latter case the doininatiii",' niotle ot" the social mind is what 

 (iiddings calls symi)a1lietie like-mindedness ; in the former eases 

 it is fonnal like-mindedness of the people that has set the eon- 

 diti()nin<r limits of social selection. On the other hand, the 

 j)rocess becomes rational whenever a non-conformist or an of- 

 fender is exterminated by the deliberate, thought-out plan of 

 action exemplilied in execution that follows formal trial, or in 

 capital punishment after criminal i)roeedure. In all such cases 

 the dominating mode of the social mind is rational like-minded- 

 ness. Now in these different forms of social selection it should 

 always be remembered that the objectionable thing which is got 

 rid of is, in general, the misfit idea, act, or habit. Tlie killing 

 of its exponent or promoter is only incidental to the accomplish- 

 ment of this conscious or dimly perceived end. Thus social 

 selection works upon the raw materials of psychic stuff, although 

 it acts upon a physical plane. 



Turning now to that form of selection which works upon a 

 ])sychic plane, attaining its results by the coercion and constraint 

 of human variates, I \An)uld suggest the term societal selection for 

 this process. Societal selection, therefore, is the phenomenon of 

 the constraint or exclusion from the group of obstructionists, 

 iiniovators, non-conformists, or social offenders, or of the ejection 

 fi'om the social mind of an objectionable practice. This process 

 is sometimes automatic and sometimes rational. It is automatic 

 when an offender is ostracized, as ^laxim Gorki was shunned by 

 the American public. It is rational when an objectionable person 

 is deliberately excluded from the group for definite and wdl- 

 understood reasons. Its political forms are seen in exile, bani.sh- 

 ment, and outlawry. Excomnuniication and interdict are its 

 ecclesiastical forms. The distinctly social form of rational 

 societal selection is imprisonment of delinquents and especially 

 the individualization of punishment. Here again, as in social 

 selection, the objectionable thing got rid of is. in general, the 

 otlfensive idea, act, or ha])it. but in this case the end is ac- 

 complished by milder means. Not oidy is societal selection less 



