208 Evolution of Society. 



Again, certainly under artificial conditions, but also in a 

 state of nature, there is extension of protection to weaker 

 brethren — by the shading of those requiring shade, and 

 otherwise. Wishing to have a meadow occupied by peren- 

 nial grasses exclusively, the farmer sows his timothy, clover, 

 or other seed, with the wheat or other grain-seed ; where- 

 upon the more hardy and rank-growing grain-stalks shade 

 from the killing sun of summer the tender sprouts of timo- 

 thy and clover, until — the grain being cut in the late sum- 

 mer, or early fall — they spring forward rapidly, and, before 

 other plants, or weeds, can make head, timothy or clover is 

 in possession, not to be ousted for a term of years. Sub- 

 stantially the same action is seen to be taken naturally, 

 without the intervention of man, — as where the shade of 

 forest trees permits and protects the growth of humbler 

 specimens of plant-life beneath their branches. 



But, practically, the whole of the lower plane of individ- 

 ual and associated vegetal life is subordinated to the higher 

 forms of life found in animals, and to their needs and uses. 

 While the capacities of choice and of change in place may 

 here and there be hinted at, or suggested, in vegetal life, 

 it is not until we reach the level of animal life that we 

 find these as predominant characteristics — disregarding 

 certain low forms located near the line of transition from 

 the vegetal to the animal type. With these capacities we 

 find associated more or less rudimentary forms of mind, and 

 capacity for expression, intercommunication and language, 

 together with dominant selfishness, which in the world of 

 society occupies the place and fills the functions of the law 

 of gravity in the material world, and out of which all order 

 eventually develops. 



In animal life, associated action among individuals of the 

 same species tends to increase, in general, as carnivorous 

 tendencies diminish ; perhaps we might say, it is caused by 

 them, where the weaker ones combine for protection against 

 the stronger, — until we reach such animals as the sheep, 

 highly peaceful in their nature, living together in flocks, 

 and attracting attention as such, as types for the considera- 

 tion of human beings in their moral, societary, and even 

 religious relations. 



Having come into being under the same laws and admin- 

 istration as mankind, it is naturally to be expected that 

 prosperity and well-being among men will be accompanied 



