MCOEE] SPONTANEITY OF THE ESTHETIC 179* 



into tlie coiijustmeut of tlie social realm; and the organization of the 

 social realm, iuvolviug as it does a hierarchic arrangement of organ- 

 isms according to mentality,' habituates the higher individuals of the 

 organizations to that control of lower individuals which buds in agri- 

 culture, blossoms in civil rule, and fruits in nature-conquest. Thus 

 the factors of each realm are pi ophetic of the distinctive factor of tlie 

 next higher — and the prophecy is not merely passive, but is, rather, an 

 actual step in causal sequence. 



It may be iiointed out still further that, in the higher realms at least, 

 si)ontaneous action necessarily precedes maturely developed function : 

 in the vegetal realm the tree shoots upward before its lorm is shaped 

 and its tissue textured by wind and sun and environing organisms; in 

 the animal realm youthful play presages the prosaic performances nor- 

 mal to adult life; in the social realm men behave before framing laws 

 of behavior; and in the rational realm fortuitous discovery paves the 

 road for surefooted invention. Thus natural initiative arises in spon- 

 taneous action, while mechanical action is mainly consequential. 



It may be pointed out finally that the field of spontaneous action is 

 relatively increased with the endless multiplications of action accom- 

 panying the passage from the lower realms to the higher — indeed the 

 relations may be likened unto those of exogenous growth, which is 

 largely withdrawn from the irresponsive and stable interior structures 

 and gathered into the responsive and spontaneously active peripheral 

 structures ; so that spontaneous activity attending natural development 

 is relatively more important in the higher stages than in the lower.^ 



Now, on combining the several indications it is found clear (1) that 

 the more spontaneous developmental factor in all normal growth cor- 

 responds with the esthetic factor in demotic activity; (2) that this is 

 the initiatory factor and the chief determinant of the rate and course 

 of development; (3) that it is of relatively enlarged iiromineuce in the 

 higher stages; and hence (4) that the esthetic activities aftbrd a means 

 of measuring developmental status or the relative positions in terms of 

 development of races and tribes. 



On applying these principles to the Seri tribe, in the light of their 

 meager industrial motives and still poorer esthetic motives, it would 

 appear that they stand well at the bottom of the scale in demotic 

 development. Their somatic characteristics are suggestively primi- 

 tive, as already shown; and the testimony of these characteristics is 

 fully corroborated by that of their esthetic status as interpreted in the 

 light of the laws of growth. 



'The spontaneous arrangement of organisms in accordance witli mental grade is well illustrated by 

 that solidarity of desert life which matures in the cultivation if plants and the investigation of ani- 

 mals (The Beginning of Agriculture, in Tlie American Anthropologist, vol. VIII, October, 1895, pp. 

 350-375; The Beginning of Zooculture, ibid., vol. X, July 1897, pp. 215-230.) 



^The laws of growth recognized herein have been somewhat more fully outlined elsewhere, notably 

 in The Earth the Home of Man (Anthropological Society of Washington, Special Papers 2, 1894, pp. 

 3-8), and in Piratical Acculturation (American Anthropologist, vol. xi, 1898, pp. 2-13-249). 



