524 EQUILIBRATION. 



ture, as in the past, the process will be carried on rhythmical- 

 ly, by waves of emigration from new and higher centres of 

 civilization successively arising; and by the supplanting of 

 inferior races by the superior races they beget; and the 

 process so carried on must be extremely slow. Nor does 

 it seem to me that such an equilibration will, as Mr. Mill 

 suggests, leave scope for further mental culture and moral 

 progress; but rather that the approximation to it must be 

 simultaneous with the approximation to complete equilib- 

 rium between man's nature and the conditions of his ex- 

 istence. 



One other kind of social equilibration has still to be con- 

 sidered : that which results in the establishment of govern- 

 mental institutions, and which becomes complete as these 

 institutions fall into harmony with ihe desires of the people. 

 There is a demand and supply in political affairs as in in- 

 dustrial affairs ; and in the one case as in the other, the antag- 

 onist forces produce a rhythm which, at first extreme in its 

 oscillations, slowly settles down into a moving equilibrium 

 of comparative regularity. Those aggressive impulses in- 

 herited from the pre-social state those tendencies to seek 

 self-satisfaction regardless of injury to other beings, which 

 are essential to a predatory life, constitute an anti-social 

 force, tending ever to cause conflict and eventual separation 

 of citizens. Contrariwise, those desires whose ends can be 

 achieved only by union, as well as those sentiments which 

 find satisfaction through intercourse with fellow-men, and 

 those resulting in what we call loyalty, are forces tending 

 to keep the units of a society together. On the one hand, 

 there is in each citizen, more or less of resistance against 

 all restraints imposed on his actions by other citizens : a re- 

 sistance which, tending continually to widen each indi- 

 vidual's sphere of action, and reciprocally to limit the 

 spheres of action of other individuals, constitutes a repul- 

 sive force mutually exercised by the members of a social 

 aggregate. On the other hand, the general sympathy of 



