THE ORGANIC CONCEPT OF SOCIETY 1 35 



The only way the soul of a people can be radically changed, our 

 author asserts, is by cross-breeding, and he points out the danger 

 that threatens America in the hordes of emigrants going to her 

 shores; but the bad effects of cross-breeding are not considered by 

 Le Bon to be physiological so much as socio-psychical. 1 Such a 

 period of transition is always one of internal struggle and only at 

 such a time is environment a potent factor in the transformation 

 of the racial type. 2 



Le Bon shows how social institutions are a manifestation of the 

 invisible soul of a people and how impossible it is to change these 

 institutions except through a change in the soul. 3 He reaches the 

 conclusion that the elements which, philosophically speaking, are 

 inferior (e. g., military power) are the most important from the 

 social point of view. " If the laws of the future," he says, " are 

 to be those of the past, it may be said that to have attained to too 

 high a degree of intelligence and culture is what is most harmful 

 to a people. People perish as soon as the qualities of character 

 which form the ground work of their soul begin to decline, and 

 these qualities decline as soon as the civilization and intelligence 

 of a people reach a high level"; 4 — but he does not analyze the 

 causes of the decline in the character of a nation nor does he 

 show the reason why this leads to their conquest by a barbarous 

 people. 



Our author goes on to consider how the history of nations is a 

 consequence of their character, illustrating this truth especially 

 from politics, and shows how France today, as for generations, 

 stands for state control, in contrast with the English demand for 

 social endeavor by voluntary co-operation. 6 



In book IV, Le Bon discusses the question of the modification 

 of the psychical characteristics of races and shows how this is 

 brought about by a slow process of progressive adaptation as a 

 result of the pressure of wants, struggle for life, action of certain 



1 Psychology of Peoples, pp. 52 f. 



2 Ibid., p. 54. 3 Ibid., pp. 64 ff. 



4 Ibid., p. 80. Cf. pp. 55, 193, 213, where he shows how the soul of a people 

 may be destroyed. 



6 Ibid., pp. 130 ff. His forecast that there would be little progress in state 

 control in England and America has been negatived by recent developments. 



