324 Evolution and Social Kef arm : 



the other of the organic. As evolution has proceeded, 

 organic life has become more complex, and hence the 

 assimilating forces have been growing more far-reaching, 

 more abundant, and more essential. This is as true of 

 human life as it is of lower forms. In human society 

 there is a multitude of individuals, each of whom is an 

 organic whole, a source of life and power, having its own 

 aspirations, purposes, and ends to fulfill. An ideal of his 

 own greatness and glory shines before him ; the world is 

 his for achievement ; everything is regarded as an instru- 

 ment for his purposes ; those who will submit and help are 

 welcome, those who oppose he will dash in pieces. The 

 reader of Walt Whitman's poems will find there described 

 the type of man filled with exi)ansiveness, initiativeness, 

 creativeness, self-development, in whom the spirit of in- 

 dividualism is dominant and aggressive. 



But this individualism receives a constant check from 

 the fact that man does not live in isolation. The difference 

 of sex necessitates gregariousness. Mutual interests are 

 developed, and the individual finds that his own cherished 

 objects of attainment involve the co-operation of liis 

 fellows, who are constituted precisely like himself. He 

 cannot have their society without making concessions to 

 their personalities. He must do at least some of the 

 things they Avant in order to get the things he wants. And 

 the more people he has communication with the more 

 varied will be the modes of mutual yielding. The social 

 sentiments, then, which have regard for others, grow along- 

 side of the selfish in the human individual, and become 

 more complex as social intercourse is extended and the 

 interdependence of human beings becomes more fully 

 established. The predatory appetites are Aveakened, their 

 urgency becomes less, while the social interests are enlarged 

 and the sympathetic feelings increased in power and scope. 



Tlius the fact that there has been an evolutionary 

 progress toward a mutual accommodation of human actions 

 and aims in a peacefully-ordered community, proves that a 

 solution of the problem we proposed is possible, since it 

 has been already partially solved. We see how its solution 

 has been possible, and how, if at all, its solution will be 

 made more complete. This we are able to imderstand only 

 through a scientific observation of the facts of hiiman 

 nature as revealed by psychology, anthropology and sociol- 



