272 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 



The political struggle is rooted largely in physiological and 

 economic interests, though later it enters the mental realm and 

 has for its purpose religious coercion. The unit in this struggle 

 is always the territorial group. Inter-group conflicts are held 

 to have two fundamental purposes: (i) group aggrandisement or 

 group safety on the one hand and (2) so-called rights either 

 national or international on the other. 



The intellectual struggle 1 comes relatively late and is closely 

 related to the political, i. e., that nation will win out in the long 

 run which has the language that best facilitates intercourse; that 

 knowledge which makes possible the greatest production, hence 

 gives industrial supremacy; that literature which is most inspir- 

 ing and most successful in securing the " sympathy " of members 

 of other nations; that philosophy which gives the most exact 

 concept of the cosmic order and that religion which is most potent 

 in expanding ideas. 2 



As feeling (le sentiment) is a most important element in struggle 

 and adaptation, this psychological factor is analyzed at some 

 length, but here, as in some other places, Novicow fails to be 

 convincing because of his hedonistic psychology with its whole 

 emphasis on the motives of pleasure-seeking and pain-avoiding. 

 As with Ward, feeling is a " social force " though not labelled thus, 

 and is the dynamic in social attraction and expansion. 3 



All the cultural elements, together with those social character- 

 istics which give zest to life, are most potent in making the 

 winning group. 



It is by the totality of moral and intellectual qualities; by the power of 

 seduction; by means of a high culture, artistic development, enthusiastic 

 interest in the researches of science and the speculations of philosophy, that 

 make a country interesting and evoke a sympathetic response in its neigh- 

 bors. Now such a people attracts strangers. The stranger carries over new 

 ideas and stirs the intellectual movement. This movement favors philos- 

 ophical speculation. A good philosophical method contributes to the ad- 

 vancement of the sciences. Science leads to the improvement of technique 

 and to the perfecting of social institutions. In turn these two factors 

 [moral and intellectual] increase riches and riches create political power. 4 



1 Les Luttes, pp. 96 ff. 3 Ibid., pp. 112 ff., 164 f. 



2 Ibid., pp. 96 f. 4 Ibid., p. 120. 



