230 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



constitution is different from tliat of his employer ; it is because 

 centuries of tradition have created habits and customs and 

 notions which, although not transmitted from generation to 

 generation in the biological sense of the word — the Lamarckian 

 doctrine of the transmission of acquired habits being, as we have 

 seen, untenable — have, none the less, been transmitted through- 

 out successive generations by means of education in the widest 

 sense of the word. Tradition is the social form of heredity ; 

 and tradition has ever been the restraining force in the evolution 

 of society. Release the individual from the bonds of tradition, 

 and we release him from the only power which can effect an 

 equihbrium between him and his social surroundings. 



Let us suppose the traditions of a society to be suddenly 

 aboHshed. The individual, liberated from the weight of the 

 accimiulated habits, customs, and traditions of centuries, finds 

 himself face to face with all the vast resources which have been 

 developed fari passu with social evolution. Freed from all 

 restraints, his one thought will be how to appropriate the greatest 

 possible proportion of these resources. Up tiU that moment, 

 the immense increase of social wealth was counterbalanced by 

 the accumulation of social tradition. It is true that in pro- 

 portion as wealth has increased, the desire of luxury, of comfort, 

 has increased also. The standard of life of every social class has 

 been raised since the beginning of the nineteenth century. None 

 the less, the social hierarchy has been maintained, and this 

 hierarchy is sanctioned by social recognition. The social 

 sanction makes itself felt at both ends of the scale ; the useless 

 luxury of the millionaire, the indolence of the parasite, is even 

 more severely condemned by public opinion than the infractions 

 of the law committed by the labourer ; and this greater severity 

 is the merest justice, seeing that the consciousness of social 

 duty should be developed in proportion to the education received ; 

 and that the total lack of any such consciousness on the part 

 of those who occupy high places in the social hierarchy is the 



