CIVILIZATION-WARD AND DIETZGEN 175 



psychic factor has been left out of the ac- 

 count, the intellectual or rational factor, and 

 this factor is so stupendous that there is no 

 room for astonishment in contemplating the 

 magnitude of the error which its omission has 

 caused." 



This is the foundation stone of Ward's so- 

 ciology. With great care he elaborates the 

 vital difference between the economy of na- 

 ture with its blind forces, and the economy of 

 society with its mental arrangement of means 

 to ends. He marshals that well-known array 

 of facts which prove the tremendous waste 

 continually going on in the natural world. 



According to M. Quatrefages, two succes- 

 sive generations of a single plant-louse would 

 cover eight acres. A large chestnut tree in 

 June contains as much as a ton of pollen. 

 Considering the size of pollen-grain the num- 

 ber on such a tree would be next to incon- 

 ceivable. Burst a puff-ball and there arises 

 from it a cloud that fills the air for some dis- 

 tance around. This cloud consists of an al- 

 most infinite number of exceedingly minute 

 spores, each of which should it by the rarest 

 chance fall upon a favorable spot, is capable 

 of reproducing the fungus to which it belongs. 



And yet in spite of all this enormous repro- 

 ductivity the population of these species re- 



