2l8 FORMULAS OF THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 



race. The ants and bees, therefore, may be said to 

 present a terrible example of the fallacy of Abstract 

 Socialism. 



§ 6. This example may well suggest the reflection 

 that true progress avoids alike excessive individ- 

 ualism and excessive socialism, and consists in a 

 harmo7iious development of the individual and his 

 social medium. 



And in fact w^e find that whereas neither the 

 individual by himself, nor the society wdiich has 

 crushed the individual, can develop beyond a limited 

 extent, all real progress concurrently develops both 

 the individual and the sociahnedium. It is a develop- 

 ment of the individual in society, and of society through 

 individuals, A harmonious development like this 

 does not develop the individual in a fakir-like isol- 

 ation, by himself and for himself, but as a member of 

 society and together with society : and similarly the 

 development of society involves that of the indivi- 

 duals who compose it, and consists therein. The two 

 progress pa7^i passu, so that we may perhaps conjec- 

 ture that they are not two facts but 07te. 



And by the development of the individual is 

 meant that the individual becomes more of an in- 

 dividual, a fuller and more perfect individual ; by the 

 development of society, that society becomes more 

 of a society, a fuller and more perfect society, of 

 which the members are more and more dependent 

 on one another, act and react upon one another with 

 greater and greater intensity. 



But this formula must be tested and verified by 

 its applicability to the different stages of Evolution, 

 alike to the evolution of human society, to that of 

 the lower animals, and finally to that of the inorganic 

 world. 



