FORMULAE OF SOCIAL PROGRESS 1 89 



these have become bound together in a system or bundle, whose real logical 

 interrelation, though not without intricacies of its own, seems vaguely re- 

 peated in the interrelation of the races which have contributed to its forma- 

 tion. If we follow up this great scientific and industrial stream, we find its 

 source in the mind of every genius, whether obscure or celebrated, who has 

 added some new truth, some new means of activity, to the enduring legacy 

 of humanity, and who has made the relations among mankind more har- 

 monious by this contribution, by promoting community of thought and col- 

 laboration of effort. And so ... I maintain that the details of human events 

 alone contain striking adaptations; that the basis of those harmonies which 

 are less noticeable in a vaster domain here comes plainly to view, and that 

 the more we rise from a small but closely united social group, such as the 

 family, the school, the workshop, the rural church, the convent, or the regi- 

 ment, to the city, the province, or the nation, the less complete and striking 

 does the solidarity become. . . . This is true, be it observed, unless some 

 powerful personality intervenes to govern and overrule the interrelation of 

 events. The latter, however, tends to occur more and more frequently, since 

 civilization is distinguished by the facilities it offers for the realization of 

 special schemes of social reorganization; and in this case it does not always 

 hold true that the harmony of an aggregate is in inverse ratio to its mass. 1 



In Tarde's philosophy we have a " pluralistic universe." The 

 ultimate fact so far as he can discover is a vast multitude of 

 diverse primal units. These primal units or simple elements after 

 a time form into a vast array of complex units exhibiting internal 

 adaptation. Ultimately the complex protoplasmic organism is 

 evolved having internal adaptation and a certain degree of 

 external, — and so on through the development of species to 

 man and through the family to complex social relations. 2 Viewed 

 statically adaptation for the most part decreases inversely with 

 the extent of adaptive relations, but viewed dynamically the 

 progress of civilization reveals another movement tending to 

 increase the closeness of human relations by association and 

 co-operation so that we may look forward to an ultimate social 

 organization co-extensive with humanity which shall reveal a 

 high degree of internal adaptation. 3 And just as the evolution 

 of species is explained by variation, struggle and survival, so 

 the process of socialization is explained by social variation 

 (invention) and imitation, working by the laws of repetition and 

 opposition to secure ultimate adaptation. Imitation, then, with 



1 Laws of Imitation, pp. 162, 163. 2 Ibid., p. 162. 3 Ibid., p. 169. 



