INVENTION AND PRODUCTION 223 
march chanced to produce. But with the advent of the highly developed 
insects in late Cretaceous and early Tertiary time the psychic factor began 
to react upon the plant world, and . . . flowers were the direct product of a 
growing aesthetic faculty, — the response to the demands of a true soul force 
in nature. Later the same agency, working in bird life and mammalian life 
ushered in the rich, showy and nutrient fruits of the forest and the bread- 
yielding grains of the meadow and the marsh. The wonderful revolution 
wrought by this same growing soul in relations of the sexes among the 
creatures last mentioned . . . might fittingly form the theme of the future 
poetry of science. In human society . . . thesoulis the great transforming 
agent which has worked its way up through the stages of savagery and bar- 
barism to civilization and enlightenment, the power behind the throne of 
reason in the evolution of man.! 
Let us consider briefly Professor Ward’s contributions to our 
subject: — 
1. Sympodial Development.— After contrasting sympodial with 
monopodial development in biology which results in the former 
case in a zigzag instead of linear development, he applies the 
principle to social development as follows: — 
We may look upon human races as so many trunks and branches of what 
may be called the sociological tree. The vast and bewildering multiplicity 
in the races of men is the result of ages of race development, and it has taken 
place in a manner very similar to that in which the races of plants and 
animals have developed. . . . Every one of these races of men, from the 
advanced nationalities . . . back to the barbaric tribes that arose from the 
blending of hostile hordes, is simply an anthropologic sympode, strictly 
analogous to the biologic sympodes.? 
This leads Professor Ward to a distinction between specializa- 
tion and evolution: “ The former consists chiefly in modification 
of form and size without change in the type of structure. The 
latter depends entirely on modification in the type of structure to 
adapt it to changes in the environment.” The former is merely 
natural growth and progressive adaptation to a slightly changing 
environment, the latter a more radical change such as is necessary 
for continuous adjustment to a marked change in the environ- 
ment. 
Ward shows that highly specialized forms are more or less 
unstable. ‘‘ The highly specialized forms do not degenerate or 
1 The Psychic Factors of Civilization, pp. 48, 49. 
2 Pure Sociology, pp. 76, 77. 
