The Result 



195 



natural character is a weak acquired one which 

 needs aid in its development; and for every 

 person and class strong in some particular, 

 there are others increasingly weak and more 

 dependent upon the strong for their comple- 

 mentary relations. Men are all strong and 

 they are all weak. The development of the 

 strong should be, not where they are strong, 

 but where they are weak. Only when this is 

 clearly seen does the theory of progress be- 

 come a working hypothesis in conformity 

 with practice. 



The vital point in all progress, then, is the 

 creation of a social surplus. It will make both 

 a biologic and an economic circuit ; and each 

 circuit will end in stronger characters and 

 more equality. A social surplus should, there- 

 fore, be a perpetual fund always disappearing 

 but ever reappearing in some new form. The 

 parallel changes in economic and biologic life 

 will thus run into each other and be expres- 

 sions of the same ultimate forces. The facts 

 in one field must correspond to those in the 

 other and be illustrations of the adjustment 

 to nature that man is seeking. 



