228 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 
. .. The spiritual part of civilization is at least conditioned 
upon material civilization.” ‘It does not derogate from its 
worth,” he continues, “‘ to admit that without a material basis it 
cannot exist; . . . but the moment such a basis is supplied it 
comes forth in all ages and races of men. It may therefore be re- 
garded as innate in man and potential everywhere, but a flower 
so delicate that it can only bloom in the rich soil of material pros- 
perity. . . . No amount of care devoted to it alone could make 
it flourish in the absence of suitable conditions, and with such 
conditions it requires no special attention. It may therefore be 
dismissed from our consideration, and our interest may be cen- 
tered in the question of material civilization, and this will be 
understood without the use of the adjective.” ! 
“Involved in the idea of achievement,” ? he says, “ is that of 
permanence. Nothing that is not permanent can be said to have 
been achieved, at least in the sense in which that term is here em- 
ployed. Now, material goods are all perishable. . . . Achieve- 
ment does not consist in wealth. Wealth is fleeting and 
ephemeral. Achievement is permanent and eternal. . . . The 
products of achievement are not material things at all. As said 
before, they are not ends but means. They are methods, ways, 
principles, devices, arts, systems, institutions. In a word, they 
are inventions. . . . It is anything and everything that rises 
above mere imitation and repetition. Every such increment to 
civilization is a permanent gain, because it is imitated, repeated, 
perpetuated, and never lost. It is chiefly mental or psychical, 
but it may be physical in the sense of skill.” 4 He enumerates 
and discusses other forms of achievement such as language, 
literature, philosophy, science, the invention of tools, instruments, 
utensils, missiles, traps, snares and weapons crowned by the prod- 
ucts of the modern era of machino-facture with power of artificial 
1 Pure Sociology, p. 18. 2 Tbid., pp. 22 ff. 
* Institutions, however, are not permanent as he himself says on p. 31. The 
only permanent thing is the process itself or intelligence that is its source. Cf. 
Bradley, Appearance and Reality, ch. V; Bowne, Metaphysics, ch. III. For criticism 
of this doctrine of achievement, see Gillette, American Journal of Sociology, July, 
1914. 
4 Pure Sociology, p. 25. 
