154 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 
Sumner carries his discussion on to the development of the 
“ethos ” or group character,! — a concept corresponding to that 
of “soul”? as used by Le Bon. The greater part of the book is 
given to illustrations of the above principles concerning the 
development of such mores as slavery, abortion, infanticide, 
killing of the old, cannibalism, sex relations, and those connected 
with social codes, kinship, blood revenge, primitive justice, social 
harlotry, etc. 
Although principal attention is given to the spontaneous devel- 
opment of folkways and mores, Sumner makes place for criticism 
and improvement. As these can come only from the élite, he 
advocates critical ability as an important element in education. 
“Tt is only by high mental discipline,” he says, “ that we can be 
trained to rise above that atmosphere [of the mores] and form 
rational judgments on current cases. This mental independence 
and ethical power are the highest products of education.’? 
Further on he says, “‘ In the organization of modern society the 
schools are the institutional apparatus by which the inheritance 
of experience and knowledge, — the whole mental outfit of the 
race, — is transmitted to the young. ... The transmission 
ought to be faithful, but not without criticism. The reaction of 
free judgment and taste will keep the mores fresh and active, and 
the schools are undoubtedly the place where they should be 
renewed through intelligent study of their operation in the past.” 3 
Social evolution is thus, with Sumner, almost entirely a passive 
process, individuals and groups working out their salvation in 
proportion to a fortunate selection of ways of acting. Rational 
choice is very rare, even among the most highly-civilized races. 
Sumner is open to criticism chiefly at two points, first, in his 
use of the neo-Darwinian formula without proving that it works 
the same in social as in biological evolution, and second, in his 
failure to bring out clearly the difference between the right and 
good as seen by the people and the right and good as seen by the 
élite and demonstrated as such by consequences.4 From this 
point of view we might substitute for Sumner’s, “ The mores are 
1 Folkways, pp. 70 f. 2 Ibid., p. 532. 3 [bid., p. 635. 
4 Cf. Hobhouse, Morals in Evolution, pp. 26 f. 
