COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



or patriarchal mode of structure is simply ex- 

 panded without being essentially altered. The 

 family is still the unit of society, the sense of 

 corporate responsibility is still powerful, indi- 

 vidual careers are still determined by status and 

 not by contract, originality in opinion or in de- 

 meanour is still prohibited by the most formi- 

 dable legal or social penalties ; the tyranny of 

 custom, in short, is still paramount, and — to 

 crown all — the three kinds of governmental 

 agency, political, ecclesiastical, and ceremonial, 

 are still concentrated in the person of the patri- 

 archal ruler, who is at once king, chief-priest or 

 vice-deity, and master of ceremonies. 



Observe now the dilemma which seems to 

 confront us. In the operation of natural selec- 

 tion upon primitive tribes, we seem to have 

 found a satisfactory explanation of the growth 

 of such social " aggregates of the first order " as 

 China or old Mexico. But now, how are we 

 going to get past this stage ? How shall we ac- 

 count for the formation of social aggregates of 

 a higher type ? The problem now before us is 

 how to relax the tyranny of custom, and thus 

 afford a chance for social reorganization, with- 

 out entailing a retrogression toward primeval 

 lawlessness. It is one of the puzzles of socio- 



in spite of greater ethnic diversity, Switzerland, for exam- 

 ple, is in many respects more completely a nationality than 

 Spain. 



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