THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIETY 



domineering over all within his reach. The 

 modern type is the man of mild personality, 

 shunning the appearance of self-assertion, slow 

 to anger, patient of contradiction, mindful of the 

 feelings of those about him, unwilling to " make 

 trouble." Such is the contrast between the typi- 

 cal ancient and the typical modern ; and it im- 

 plies a prodigious alteration in the dominant 

 ethical feelings of the progressive portion of 

 our race. 



This change, as we now see, has been wrought 

 by the slow but incessant modification of the 

 social environment to which each generation of 

 men has had to conform its actions. The altru- 

 istic feelings, finding at each successive epoch a 

 wider scope for action, have become gradually 

 strengthened by use ; while the egoistic feelings, 

 being less and less imperatively called into play, 

 have become gradually weakened by disuse. 

 And this change in the environment we per- 

 ceive to have been wrought by the continuous 

 growth of the community in size and complex- 

 ity. Where, as among stationary tribes of sav- 

 ages, there has been no such growth, there the 

 moral type of the primeval man is still to be 

 found ; and where, as among the stationary com- 

 munities of Asia, there has been growth in size 

 without corresponding growth in complexity, 

 there the moral type is intermediate between 

 that of the barbarian and that of the inheritor 



VOL. Ill 3^5 



