r 



THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIETY 



of Mohammed. The whole phenomenon re- 

 quires a psychological, not a physical explana- 

 tion. 



The environment in our problem must, there- 

 fore, not only include psychical as well as phy- 

 sical factors, but the former are immeasurably 

 the more important factors, and as civilization 

 advances their relative importance steadily in- 

 creases. Bearing in mind these preliminary ex- 

 planations, let us now address ourselves to the 

 problem of social evolution, applying to the 

 solution of it sundry biological principles estab- 

 lished in previous chapters. We have first to 

 observe that it is a corollary from* the law of 

 use and disuse, and the kindred biologic laws 

 which sum up the processes of direct and indi- 

 rect equilibration, that the fundamental charac- 

 teristic of social progress is the continuous weak- 

 ening of selfishness and the continuous strengthen- 

 ing of sympathy. Or — to use a more conve- 

 nient and somewhat more accurate expression 

 suggested by Comte — it is a gradual supplant- 

 ing of egoism by altruism. 



In the course of our inquiry into the causes 

 of organic evolution, it was shown that all the 

 processes cooperating in the development of 

 higher from lower forms of Hfe are in the wid- 

 est and deepest sense processes of equilibration. 

 The all-important truth was there demonstrated, 

 that the progress of life on the earth has been 

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