NATIONAL CHARACTER 439 



stimuli. In the case of European States, the causes which have 

 presided over social evolution are multiple and complex ; but, 

 in ultimate instance, the evolution of every nation in Europe 

 to-day is determined by that of neighbouring nations and by 

 that of its own social classes. 



It is essential for the welfare of a society that its evolution — 

 that is to say, its rate of adaptation — should keep pace with the 

 rate of change in the environing conditions. As we have said, 

 should the environment change more rapidly than the society is 

 capable of changing, the extinction of the society must follow. 

 But, conversely, the rate of traditional evolution must not 

 exceed the rate of biological evolution. Every society possesses 

 — in a greater or less degree, but always approximately — that 

 form of government which is appropriate to it. This merely 

 amounts to saying that the institutions of every society corre- 

 spond, more or less, to its degree of organic evolution. Of course, 

 the very fact of a nation possessing a large amount of traditional 

 property proves that nation to have a particular character of 

 its own ; and national character, according to Bagehot, is deter- 

 mined by imitation ; this appears also to be the view of Gabriel 

 Tarde.^ But although national character reflects the nature 

 of its traditions and institutions, these reflect in turn the organic 



^ Tarde has nevertheless admitted distinctly that the individual factor 

 is the chief factor in the formation of national genius. This amounts to 

 recognising that the traditions and institutions of a nation are the work 

 of individuals ; which, in turn, implies that, as institutions are what indi- 

 viduals made them, so they are a reflection of the biological value of the 

 nation, as determined by the biological value of its leaders. " A la longue," 

 says Tarde in his last book, " il faudra bien ouvrir les yeux a l'6videnoe, 

 reconnaitre que le genie d'un peuple on d'une race, sua lieu d'etre le facteur 

 dominant et superieur des genies individuds qui sont censes etre ses 

 rejetons et ses manifestations passageres, est tout simplement . . . 

 la synthese anonyme de ces originalites personelles, seules veritables, 

 seules efficaces et agissantes a chaque instant. ... Le g^nie colleotif, 

 impersoimel, est done fonction et non facteur des genies individuels, infini- 

 ment nombreux " (Les Lois Soeiales, pp. 44, 45 ; Paris, Alcan, 1905). 

 Vide also Les Lois de I' Imitation ; Paris, Alcan, 1896. 



