220 DEVELOPMENT AND PURPOSE CHAP. 



In general the ethical factor is only one of the influences 

 shaping the life of man, and the social structure at any time 

 is the result of the interplay of countless individual forces 

 moved by their own impulses, seeking their own ends, 

 good or bad, social or anti-social. Shaped by these forces, 

 the social structure grows, stagnates or decays. But even 

 when it grows it is by no means to be assumed that it neces- 

 sarily advances on ethical lines. On the contrary, the mere 

 increment of strength may itself induce elements of dis- 

 cord, and, in fact, of sheer iniquity in the recognised code 

 from which a simpler life is relatively free. 



The nature of social growth is best understood by con- 

 sidering the basis of social union, that which tends to hold 

 societies together and also to keep them separate from one 

 another. Certain determinants, such as territorial con- 

 tiguity or isolation, and community or diversity in ideas, 

 customs and speech are operative at all stages of growth, 

 tending to extend or contract the limits of union as the 

 case may be. But, in addition, there are certain principles 

 which give character to the social structure as a whole, 

 and are distinctive of successive stages of development. 

 The earliest form of social structure is that of the rela- 

 tively unorganised local group, which takes more distinctly 

 organised shape as a clan, or a community of intermarrying 

 clans. We may reckon these together as societies based 

 on kinship (including affinity). More extensive societies 

 are formed mainly by conquest, and rest ultimately on 

 force. The principle of force clothes itself in the form of 

 authority, and in greater or less degree reacts on the whole 

 structure of society. It may be simply superimposed on 

 the simpler communal life, or it may reorganise it on a 

 feudal basis. It may divide society into castes or into the 

 familiar ranks of nobles, freemen and serfs or slaves. It 

 is the characteristic social form of the middle civilisation. 

 In the higher civilisations it is partially or wholly replaced 

 by the principle of citizenship or mutual obligation as 

 between the community as a whole and its component mem- 

 bers. A Society so constituted may be called in the stricter 

 sense a State. It rests on an ethical basis, and is the foun- 

 dation of ethical development. The State has existed in 



