INTRODUCTION 



est organic life is that in which the units have 

 the least possible freedom. The highest social 

 life is that in which the units have the greatest 

 possible freedom." The reason for this pecu- 

 liarity of social evolution is the Spencerian rea- 

 son, that in a society the psychical life belongs, 

 not to the social organism as a whole, but to the 

 individuals. Summing up these various consid- 

 erations regarding the processes of social pro- 

 gress, Fiske then proceeds to state the " law of 

 progress " in the well-known general terms of 

 the Spencerian formula of evolution, with the 

 addition of a clause at the end, to the effect that 

 in social evolution " The constituent units of 

 the community become ever more distinctly in- 

 dividual," despite the " definite, coherent heter- 

 ogeneity " which, according to the Spencerian 

 formula, must mark progress on the whole. 

 The view thus stated is in known agreement 

 with Spencerian results, and Fiske himself is 

 fully conscious of his dependence upon Spen- 

 cer ; but on the other hand, in the absence of 

 the definite working out by Spencer, as yet, of 

 the " Sociology," Fiske was obliged to collect 

 his own material, and to make, in some mea- 

 sure, his own inductions. This, even at the 

 youthful period when this chapter assumed its 

 original form, he was, as we have seen, amply 

 equipped to do ; and so the chapter contains a 

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