SUGGESTIONS OF SOCIOLOGY. 507 



we have to distinguish (a) the physical unity which 

 rests on hereditary kinship (what Giddings calls 

 " the consciousness of kind ") and on similar life-con- 

 ditions and (b) the psychical unity, which rests on 

 the unity of psychical life the " social mind " 

 developed within the social group and with relations 

 to certain ends. It seems probable that in early 

 days the physical unity was more important than 

 it was later on, when, in some cases of mixed nations, 

 the psychical bond is practically supreme; and we 

 may still distinguish between groups whose unity 

 ig determined by genetic and environmental bonds, 

 from others in which the association is also definitely 

 determined to the accomplishment of particular ends. 

 If, then, we continue to speak of society as a 

 social organism, we must safeguard the analogy by 

 remembering that its character as organism exists 

 in the thoughts, feelings, and activities of the com- 

 ponent individuals. The social bond is not one of 

 sympathy and synergy only, for the rational life is 

 intrinsically social. As Green said " social life is 

 to personality what language is to thought." 



Apart from a corroboration of the evolution- 

 formula, the chief service that biology has rendered 

 to sociology is in indicating the three main factors in 

 interpretation, namely, the environment, the func- 

 tion, and the genetic relations of the organism. 

 (1) The living creature exists in the midst of a 

 sphere of influence (soil, temperature, illumination, 

 weather, other unrelated living creatures, and so on) 

 which constitutes its environment. That this en- 

 vironment has its grip upon the organism, modifying 



