542 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



evolution does not imply independence of fundamental natural 

 laws for conscious organisms. Eather must we consider con- 

 sciousness as an admirable and extremely complicated instru- 

 ment for assuring adaptation to liigUy complex surroimdings. 

 The evolution of man has brought with it profound and repeated 

 modifications of external conditions ; and an environment thus 

 profoundly and repeatedly modified required exceptional adapta- 

 bility. Consequently the agents for effecting the complicated 

 series of adaptations necessitated by human modification of the 

 environment must be proportionately adjusted. Consciousness 

 is called forth by the necessities of a modified environment ; 

 and the fresh and ever more complicated modifications of this 

 environment have been accompanied by an ever greater develop- 

 ment of consciousness .1 



The fitness of inferior species in respect of their vital conditions 

 is generally determined by their relations respectively to the 

 physico-chemical conditions of the atmosphere, to the available 

 means of subsistence, and to other species. The fitness of a 

 member of the human species is determined, not only by these 

 factors, but also by his relation to the members of his own 

 species ; and this last factor is the most important of all. The 

 ceaseless interaction of heterogeneous mentalities has modified 

 the environment in every sense. By increasing the intellectual 

 and material resources of man, it has rendered him more inde- 

 pendent of his physical surroundings ; while, at the same time, 

 and by an inverse method of proceeding, it has multiplied the 

 risks of danger by creating new diseases and sources of degeneracy 



' As Sohaeffle well says : " Die organische und anorganisehe Welt mit 

 aDen ihren Bestandteilen sehen wir in den Personel luid Vermogens- 

 bestand des sozialen Korpers eingehen und diese zahUosen Elemente 

 durch reiohste Anwendiing verniinftiger Seelenkrafte verkniipft. . . . 

 Die UniversaUtat und hochgradige Vergeisterung seiner Stoffe tmd seiner 

 Bewegungen .sind die unterscheidenden und auszeiclmenden Charakter- 

 merkmale des sozialen Korpers " [Bau und Leben des sozialen Korpers, 

 vol. i., p. 15. Tfibingen, 1896). 



