276 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 



If a society desires to preserve its type, it should possess a sum total of 

 mental activity equal to that of all its rivals; i. e., it ought to assimilate all 

 the ideas of its neighbors. As soon as a society is not capable of this effort 

 its denationalization is inevitable, its type is condemned. Passion for the 

 new, then, is a special sign by which one can recognize that a nation is still in 

 its period of growth. The connoisseur of spiritual things who is on the 

 watch for every fresh exotic production, preserves his nation from stagnation 

 and torpor. To understand everything, to feel everything, — this it is that 

 makes the grandeur of nations as of individuals. 1 



That imitation as here used is not merely instinctive but rather 

 reflective is shown not only by use of the simile expressed by the 

 word connoisseur but also by the following: — 



To provoke imitation is to attack; to endure a propaganda (or a system 

 of teaching) with the purpose of selecting parts for personal advancement is 

 to defend oneself. Now it is absolutely impossible to impose imitation by 

 violent methods since such methods stir up antagonistic feelings which act 

 by way of constraint. One can only provoke imitation. The nations which 

 have this faculty in a high degree win out in the struggle for existence while 

 those who have it in a low degree, fail. . . . Imitation varies, naturally, 

 within wide limits. Up to a certain point it preserves national individuality 

 but carried further it can destroy it. . . . The societies which know how to 

 preserve a just balance . . . prosper; those who do not know how, perish. 2 



The means which assure mental preponderance, i. e., assimila- 

 tion and expansion, are exactly analogous to those which today 

 assure political preponderance: organization and equipment 

 (outiilage) . The battle of the future is to be between ideas rather 

 than armies, and for this intellectual struggle artists, poets, 

 savants and women are needed. 3 Moreover there is need of an 

 organization of peaceful propaganda. 4 The outcome will be the 

 amelioration of every department of life. Among other things 

 there will be an increase in the individuality of nations. 



Each nation will endeavor to be self-sufficient, to individualize. Individ- 

 uality is most marked among the most advanced civilizations. All savages 

 are alike. To produce characters as different as Dante, Michael Angelo and 

 Spinoza requires high intellectual culture in a group. In the first place divi- 

 sion of labor is proportional to the degree of civilization. . . . But division 

 of labor is true of societies with relation to humanity. After having at- 

 tempted to cultivate in the same degree the totality of human knowledge 

 there may come a time when nations will specialize, — certain nations, for 

 example, having greater aptitude for the natural sciences will cultivate them 

 in preference to the social sciences. 6 



1 Les Luttes, p. 301; cf. p. 541. 3 Ibid., pp. 305 f. 6 Ibid., p. 324. 



2 Ibid., p. 303. * Ibid., p. 438. 



