THE BASIS OF SOCIALITY 247 



It is a question of survival. It is a question of propagation and of 

 the safety and welfare of the propagated. The individuals of a 

 species which do not propagate obviously nuUify the probability of 

 like descendants. That which militates against the species thereby 

 militates against the survival of the members of that species. The 

 species that survives is characterized by the fact that its members act 

 in such a manner that descendants are provided, and also provided/)9r 

 in some way or otlier. The goal of their activities is the young and 

 their welfare. The young are heirs of all efforts directly or indi- 

 rectly {^Ersiekung, eine Fortsetzting der Ei'zeugvng). In the high- 

 est mammalian species, man, art, religion, and science are, in the long 

 run, directly or indirectly, means for more certain perpetuation of 

 the species and the more certain welfare of the same. The rank 

 of a species is determined by the degree of such care for the 

 young. The survival of the fittest means the survival of the pa- 

 rental, and all efforts are to be judged according to a pa- 

 rental standard. The greatest good to the greatest number must also 

 be interpreted in a similar manner, not as the greatest happiness of 

 the greatest number, but as such parental conduct, direct or indi- 

 rect, as will be most conducive to the propagation and welfare of the 

 species. As Herbert Spencer says, the continued life of the species 

 is in every case the end to which all other ends are secondary [Prin- 

 cijyles of Sociology^ Vol. I, p. 591). Through many stages of pro- 

 vincial patriotism and group-exclusiveness we have forged on until on 

 the not far distant sky-Hne we see a state outlined where all human- 

 ity is our fatherland. All conduct is judged by nature according to 

 the standard of survival. 



In an organism, to recur to the Spencerian analogy, the conduct 

 of the parts is determined by the welfare of the whole. That part 

 which is detrimental to the whole organism is suicidal in tendency 

 either immediately or mediately through the destruction of the whole 

 organism. The safety of the parts lies in their general social effi- 

 ciency. Their existence and perpetuation lie in their service to the 

 general organization of which they form a part. To this extent an 

 organism is similar to society, and to this extent is Spencer's analogy 



