252 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



young into adnlt social ways, may and does involve a large amount 

 of imitation, but even there, again, it should be remarked that imita- 

 tion is but one subdivit-ion of the larger process of suggestion. Sug- 

 gestion may be one of the methods by which the young acquire 

 social ways, but it does not therefore rise to the supreme rank and 

 importance of the social way itself. Again, imitation, and in a still 

 larger way suggestion in all its forms, is one method of social ser- 

 vice, as, for instance, in the influence exerted by leaders, reformers, 

 and their like. It is, however, not to be confounded with the larger 

 and more fundamental process of division of labor. It is deceptively 

 epigrammatic and quite inadequate, to say with Tarde, ^'■Socialite, 

 c'est IHmitativite.'''' ^^"f 



The most useful variation tends to survive, and hence Bailey's 

 term, "the survival of the unlike." Variation is one of the most 

 important processes of nature, for on this process are built the innu- 

 merable possibilities of the division of labor. Darwin's problem 

 was, of course, the origin of differences. Linnaeus, if he were still 

 to pursue his plan of an inventory of nature as a species of natural 

 bookkeeping, w^ould be appalled at the number of species. Instead 

 of the very modest forty thousand species comprising the sum total 

 of all living species as computed by Biberg, writing in 1749 in Lin- 

 nsens's Amoenitates Academicae^ Riley concludes that "to say that 

 there are ten million species of insects in the world would be, in my 

 judgment, a moderate estimate." The differentiation process is pro- 

 ceeding as rapidly as at any period in time past; in fact, the strong 

 probability is that it is increasing more rapidly. That organism is 

 likely to spread most rapidly which differs most widely from all its 

 fellows, because the field is free of competitors and there is the least 

 impediment to its progress. This principle has been called by 

 Darwin the divergence of character. A new character, or a new 

 combination of characters, in any organism may tend to give such an 

 organism an immense advantage because of the monopoly -privileges 

 it enjoys. Freedom and liberty is the toleration of differences, 

 affording a chance for natural or acquired aptitudes. A variation is 



(1) Tarde, Les lois de V imitation, p. 75. 



