SUGGESTIONS OF SOCIOLOGY. 521 



terial means a constant risk of mistaking metaphors 

 for scientific laws. To adapt a phrase of Bacon's, 

 we might say that the conception of evolution which 

 is adequate in the biological sphere, is nevertheless 

 subtilitati rerum humanarum longe impar, " no 

 match for the subtility of human history." * 



(a) In looking to biology for hints as to the fac- 

 tors in social evolution, it is necessary to bear in 

 mind the present security of biological conclusions 

 on the problem of evolution (see Chap. XI), and 

 the fact that the biologist has himself often followed 

 the clew suggested by social processes. There is no 

 small risk of a lamentably vicious circle. We would 

 suggest that sociologists should as far as possible 

 focus their attention rather on the animal social- 

 group (the herd, the flock, the bee-hive, the ant-hill, 

 the beaver-village, the rookery) than on the individ- 

 ual organism, for in the latter case the analogy is 

 more remote, and therefore more apt to be illusive. 

 It should be evident that there is no strict analogy 

 between struggle in non-social species and the compe- 

 tition of social groups. Among individual men it 

 is, indeed, easy to find analogues of what occurs 

 among animals, e.g., in the struggle with climate 

 or with Bacteria ; but in the distinctively social 

 struggle it is a case of one organisation against an- 

 other organisation, and physical victory over the 

 component individuals may mean victory for the 

 organisation (as expressed in ideas) of the defeated. 



Furthermore, in using the selection-formula, 

 we must be careful to bear in mind that the selec- 

 tion in a progressive society is in part conscious, de- 

 liberate, and rational. Selection determined by 



* Social Evolution, Internal. Journal Ethics, yl. (1896), p. 

 166. 



