RESPONSIVE LIFE OF ORGANISMS 511 



have sought to extend public vision may at times seem to 

 have labored in vain. But in the social as in the physical 

 organism, in the long run, intelligence wins. 



Trial and error was at first the sole method of progress; 

 but society learned to imitate and has improved by imita- 

 tion ; and it has learned to initate new activities and to inhib- 

 it old ones by reason of clearer discernment of the truth. 

 We no longer piously burn witches, or beat lunatics to 

 drive the devils out of them. 



Society, therefore, having taken stock of its experiences, 

 has instituted some integrating forces of its own. Educa- 

 tion is the chief of these: universal education; for organic 

 health is impossible unless all the parts of the organism be 

 properly responsive to common needs. Instruction now 

 brings within reach of the individual the best things of racial 

 experience, both past and present; and if there be discern- 

 ment, practice develops in him the appropriate modes of 

 action. 



