22 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 
annual movement; and by the states of heat, moisture and 
electricity in the surrounding medium; and by the chemical con- 
ditions of the atmosphere, the waters, the soil, etc. I need only 
observe that the effect of these influences is even more marked in 
sociology than in biology, not only because the organism is more 
complex, and its phenomena of a higher order, but because the 
social organism is regarded as susceptible of infinite duration, so 
as to render sensible many gradual modifications which would be 
disguised from our notice by the brevity of individual life.’ # 
Comte, as we have noted, did not accept Lamarck’s theory of the 
development of species as a result of the response of the organism 
to environmental influences, and in social evolution he believed 
that inherent race qualities and the general forces behind the 
evolutionary process were vastly more potent.? 
Active Material Adaptation.—Man’s ability to control the 
forces of nature in the interest of his well-being is with Comte one 
of the chief tests of progress. ‘‘ All human progress,” he says, 
“ political, moral or intellectual, is inseparable from material 
progression, in virtue of the close interconnection which, as we 
have seen, characterizes the natural course of social phenomena. 
Now, it is clear that the action of man upon nature depends 
chiefly on his knowledge of the laws of inorganic phenomena, 
though biological phenomena must also find a place in it.” 4 
Passive Spiritual Adaptation.—Comte’s whcle doctrine of rela- 
tivity is but another way of expressing this principle. He holds 
that the genius is an age-product;® that the preponderating 
opinions of the people determine morals and politics; ® and he 
goes so far as to say that “‘ the happiness of every man depends on 
the harmony between the development of his various faculties and 
the entire system of the circumstances which govern his life’; 
i.e., on both material and spiritual adaptation.’ 
Comte might almost be termed a social realist in his insistence 
that the individual apart from society is a mere abstraction 
whereas humanity, or again the general human mind is real. 
1 Positive Philosophy, ii, p. 116. 4 Ibid., ii, p. 118. 
2 Tbid., ii, pp. 92 f. 5 Ibid., ii, p. 92. 
3 Ibid., i, pp. 223, 363, 3933 ti, pp. 57,118. © Idid., i, p. 14; ii, pp. 30, 165. 
7 [bid., ii,p. 87. Cf. Caird, The Social Philosophy and Religion of Comte, p. 25. 
