224 Evolution of Society. 



people ; and, in the existing Jew, finds a wonderful example 

 of the application of its principles, as well as of the fidelity 

 of the Supreme Power to the " Covenants " said to have 

 been made with the fathers of his race. The history of the 

 Jews confirms Evolution in its view of the family and the 

 care and culture of the young ; of the primary importance 

 of the selfish or egoistic principle as the law of life ; and of 

 the duty, with all other getting, of getting understanding. 

 By careful study of the imperfect record, Evolution finds,, 

 or must find, in the teachings of the Founder of Christiani- 

 ty, the method by which the "law and the prophets" are 

 to be fulfilled, and not destroyed ; and this on evolutionary 

 principles, through the practice of universal justice or 

 righteousness, resulting in the relaxation of the struggle 

 for bread and clothing, and in the inheritance of the earth 

 by the meek instead of the violent. And it may be said 

 that the interests of evolutionary sociology are profoundly 

 concerned in the underlying philosophy of the transition 

 from the Jewish system to a system of universal application 

 — to the Jew and Gentile — as embodied in the words of the 

 Master, which have been handed down to us ; since it seems 

 to bear upon the question of a sensorium for the societary 

 organism, without which it must find itself classed among 

 the blind, groping, worm-like and acephalic organisms of 

 the world. Even those who have been repelled and disgusted 

 by practical Christianity must admit that the original record. 

 in so far as it discloses a plan and a purpose of teaching 

 Life, and so far as it does teach the truth about it, is in 

 harmony with Evolution. 



As herein considered, society in its complete sense is 

 Life writ large, and includes all life — associated vegetal, 

 brute-animal, and human. And in a certain sense it is one 

 organism as such, since through the laws pervading life as 

 a whole, like so many nerves, no part of it can be injured 

 or benefited without affecting to some extent — however in- 

 finitesimal — all other parts. Instance, our recent Rebellion, 

 which came so near to reaching our Societary Sensorium 

 and destroying the Union. It derived its initial force from 

 the treatment of the cotton-plant and the soil on which it 

 grew. The primary injustice was to both these factors, 

 the secondary to the labor concerned, and eventually the 

 life of the Nation itself was imperiled. Impover^hment 

 of the soil defrauded tb^ inant-life first, and all otlier life 



