220 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY, [pr. ii. 



formation of a new social aggregate of a yet higher order. 

 The modern system of independent nationalities held in 

 virtual federation — not by international codes, but by the 

 possession of guiding principles of conduct more or less 

 heartily reverenced by all — is chiefly the work of the Roman 

 Church. Here, finally, we have reached a system whose 

 structure bears in the highest degree the marks of perma- 

 nence. It is sustained by the ever-deepening sentiments 

 of cosmopolitan philanthropy and universal justice, — the 

 most cohesive of social forces, as the spirit of local selfish- 

 ness was the most disruptive. 



Here it might seem that we have obtained all the data 

 requisite for enunciating our law of social progress. But 

 something is still wanting. Our law of progress, if now 

 enunciated, would be too general. It would cover alike the 

 phenomena of social and of organic life. In both there is 

 an advance from indeterminate uniformity to determinate 

 multiformity; in both tliere is a continuous adaptation of the 

 organism or the community to its environment ; and in both 

 there is a continuous integration, entailing an advance from 

 incoherence to coherence of structure. We must now start 

 in search of that all-important clause which shall express the 

 essential difference between organic and social progress. 



In the ancient family-community, as delineated by Sir 

 Henry Maine, the separate existence of the individuals was 

 almost submerged and lost in the corporate existence of the 

 aggregate. Personal freedom was entirely unrecognized. To 

 family duties all individual rights were subjected. By a tie, 

 religious no less than political, the members of the family 

 were all held in allegiance to its oldest male representative. 

 The father might abandon his son in infancy, and when 

 grown up might sell him as a slave, or put him to death 

 for disobedience. And the wife was to an equal extent in 

 the power of her husband, to whom she legally stood in the 

 relation of a daughter, so that marriage was but the ex- 



