THE INFOLUTIONARY ASCENT 95 



structure. It is self-maintaining and self-perpetu- 

 ating. It also simulates an individual in the inter- 

 action of its part-processes and like him opposes 

 aberration from the main direction of its purpose. 

 The question of physical connection among the com- 

 ponents of the social entity should give us no trouble, 

 since, for any colony formation, whatsoever its sta- 

 tus, this resolves itself into an inquiry as to the 

 transference of stimuli, and manifestly it is imma- 

 terial whether filaments or wires serve this purpose. 

 That there is a certain type of physiognomy char- 

 acteristic of a nation goes to show a spirit peculiarly 

 its own. And so we might continue with the analogy 

 indefinitely through language, literature, cus- 

 toms. 



If social systems are of organic growth, it must 

 be possible to discover in them some definite prin- 

 ciple of life. This principle I take to be the moral 

 law. But it will be said that the standard of con- 

 duct is constantly changing, that it is never exactly 

 the same even in the most similar countries, or in 

 two successive generations in the same country. 

 Very true, but this extreme mutability of the stand- 

 ards of action is due rather to intellectual varia- 

 tion than to a change in the moral instinct. For, 

 as Buckle puts it, " there is, unquestionably, nothing 

 to be found in the world which has undergone so lit- 

 tle change as those great dogmas of which moral sys- 

 tems are composed. To do good to others; to sac- 



