DYNAMIC CONCEPTION OP SOCIAL EVOLUTION 443 



of basing social legislation on an adequate knowledge and 

 appreciation of the factors in the balance of power within the 

 society. The rapidity of social legislation must necessarily be 

 proportionate to the needs of the society ; and the needs of the 

 society must be measured according to those of the great majority 

 of that society. A bare majority may not suffice ; for the large 

 and powerful minority, being nearly as great as the majority, 

 has also a right to share in the determining of the polity of the 

 social body. But when, as in England in 1815, a minority which 

 is very small in numbers and still smaller in intelUgence pretends 

 to have the right to bleed the entire community in order to 

 subserve their exclusive interests, then no doubt can exist as 

 to what the needs of the social organism really are, and as to the 

 direction which social evolution should take. 



The dynamic conception of social evolution is thus based on 

 the recognition of the balance of power within a nation or society 

 as the starting-point and guide of all social legislation. The 

 difficulties attendant on aU social legislation are obvious. Social 

 evolution — ^in the field of tradition which legislation and institu- 

 tions in general partake of — is retarded by many obstacles, of 

 which the opposed interests of difierent social classes and the 

 ignorance or imperfect knowledge of the masses are the chief. All 

 social legislation reflects the balance of power within the society ; 

 and if one of the elements of the social organism is excluded 

 from aU share in power, we may be sure that its interests will not 

 be furthered, although their furtherance might be extremely 

 advantageous to the whole society. Thus, before the labouring 

 classes in England attained some share of power, the childhood 

 of the country was subjected to extenuating labour in factories 

 and mines ; the working man, unable to unite with other working 

 men in the defence of his interests, was at the mercy of his 

 employers ; hours were long, remuneration small, and the cost 

 of living, exaggerated by the excessive protection laws, was high. 

 It is true that the Factory Acts, which abolished the worst 



