236 Lamarckian Heredity aitd Teleology 



influence, but to do so under two limitations. The direc- 

 tive influence of the individual's purposes are important 

 either (i) in so far as the accommodations of the individual 

 are common to a relatively large number, and so affect the 

 mean values, — which means, really, so far as they are not 

 individual, but for statistical treatment, collective, — or 

 (2) in so far as they affect the progress of the species by 

 m,odes of transmission other tha7i those of physical heredity. 

 The factor called organic selection works, as has been 

 fully shown, through individual modifications ; but its role 

 is increased by the increase in extent of the accommodations 

 in a group, or by the reduction of the size of the group. 

 A few individuals' accommodations could give a direct turn 

 to the line of progress only in emergencies in which large 

 numbers of those individuals which did not accomplish 

 the accommodation were destroyed. Wherever, however, 

 we find consciousness entering as the vehicle of accommo- 

 dation, — and this would be the condition of the operation 

 of any factor which could be called by the word * purpose,* 

 — we find that common widespread forms of accommo- 

 dation spring up, and the role of individual effort, struggle, 

 etc., becomes more prominent as a directive factor. 



It is in this latter case, also, that of conscious, some- 

 what intelligent accommodation, that the second condition 

 mentioned just above comes into play; we find with con- 

 sciousness the springing up of social modes of transmis- 

 sion : imitation, paternal instruction, and all the processes 

 which we have been calling tradition, social heredity, and 

 transmission. The species may profit by the effects of 

 a single individual's achievements, through social propa- 

 gation from one individual to another, and through the 

 adoption of social and gregarious modes of behaviour; 



