DEVELOPMENT OF THE INDIVIDUAL IN SOCIETY. 219 



§ 7. With regard to actual human society the 

 illustrations of its truth meet us on all sides. 



Thus it is to adopt what has become almost a 

 commonplace definition of civilization to say that a 

 civilized society is a highly complex, differentiated 

 and specialized organism, and that in progressive 

 societies its complexity, the specialization and 

 differentiation of the functions of the parts, are in- 

 creased every day. But what does this mean but 

 that in the progress of Evolution the social organism 

 is ever becoming more and more of a society ? 



The division of labour, which is one of the chief 

 factors of increasing efficiency, makes each special- 

 ized class more dependent on the others, which 

 supply it, in exchange for the products of its labour, 

 with the means of satisfying all the wants of life ; 

 for everything but the single article which it pro- 

 duces far in excess of its own requirements, it is 

 dependent upon society. 



The effect of higher evolution in making the 

 individuals of higher societies more individual, is 

 less obvious at first, because highly specialized w^ork 

 becomes monotonous and mechanical, and so soul- 

 destroying. But perhaps much of the mischief is 

 due to the fact that our social sympathies are not yet 

 sufficiently developed for us to take interest in each 

 other's specialisms. And in any case, the evil works 

 its own cure, for surely some of the surplus wealth 

 produced by the division of labour might be devoted 

 to the alleviation of its secondary mischiefs. And 

 if we consider the total effects of the division of 

 labour on society, we find that it does facilitate 

 higher developments of individuality. Division of 

 labour and the general complexity of social structure 

 in higher societies renders possible accumulation of 



