160 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 
work retrogression in the ethical sphere.” ! He shows how the 
principle of adaptation has been at work but not rigidly, for 
“Society’s shoulders are broad, and they can bear many a burden 
imposed by human perversity without breaking down. Many 
injurious customs may arise and flourish as long as they do not 
touch the social life in a vital spot.” ? 
Hobhouse deserves credit for distinguishing between logical 
classification and genetic order and holds that as ethical and 
social evolution have not been linear we cannot be sure of the 
identity between the order of classification and that of temporal 
development. 
The position of Thomas? approaches more nearly to that of 
Boas with emphasis on environment.‘ He is deserving of notice 
because of his grouping together of three factors in progress, 
control, attention and crisis, — in his discussion of these making 
large use of the concept of adaptation, —also for the importance 
he places on the ‘great man.” Control is the end, attention the 
means, and crisis furnishes the occasion for the calling forth of 
attention, while the “great man” is the one who first responds 
effectively to a social crisis, directs the attention of others and 
leads the way to social telesis.® 
On the whole Sumner and Boas have contributed primarily to 
the development of the concept of passive spiritual adaptation 
whereas Westermarck, Hobhouse and Thomas have contributed 
also to that of active spiritual adaptation. 
This principle of adaptation has been of service to anthropolo- 
gists in their endeavors to solve such problems as the connection 
between man and the anthropoid apes both physically and psy- 
chically,® the original habitat of man,’ his earliest mechanical 
1 Morals in Evolution, p. 35. 
2 Tbid., p. 18. 
3 W. I. Thomas (1863-). 
4 Shown by his choice of selections in his Source Book, as well as by his 
Introduction and the comments at the close of each chapter. 
5 Source Book for Social Origins, pp. 14 f. 
§ Cf. supra, conclusions to ch. IV. 
7 Hoernes, Primitive Man, p. 6. 
