INVENTION AND PRODUCTION 231 
third principle is conation or social effort which, when directed to 
material ends, belongs to our division “‘ active material adapta- 
tion” and results in achievement. Every dynamic action, he 
holds, has three effects: to satisfy desire, to preserve or con- 
tinue life or to modify the surroundings. This last effort results 
largely from the projection of desire into the future, and is 
directly proportional to the distance between desire and its ful- 
filment. The effort put forth to attain this delayed satisfaction 
is the cause of the transformation of the environment, — a process 
summarized by the term achievement.!. Active adaptation or 
anthropoteleology, or again, individual and social telesis come 
into prominence only among the most highly cultured men, with 
most people and groups the satisfaction of desire being the only 
conscious aim of endeavor.? In the analysis of conation two 
elements are emphasized, human desire and the instinct of work- 
manship the latter under normal conditions leading to the satis- 
faction of desire by work which is pleasure-giving.? As man 
always follows the line of least resistance or preponderant mo- 
tives, and as the satisfaction of material wants is of primary 
importance for survival, there must be a surplus of wealth before 
the higher wants can be satisfied and a surplus always furnishes 
the conditions favorable for the development of cultural wants.‘ 
In the discussion of individual and social telesis Professor Ward 
contributes to the fourth division of our subject, active spiritual 
adaptation, the former leading man to react on the mores of the 
group in the line of variation,® the latter making it possible for a 
group so to co-operate as not only to transform their material 
environment, but their spiritual environment as well in the in- 
terest of increased well-being.® 
In his analysis of the function of the genius, Ward holds that 
here we have an illustration of the non-advantageous faculties of 
mind, though they are the outgrowth of those that are advan- 
tageous. The origin of the genius is not to be explained according 
1 Pure Sociology, pp. 248 f. 
2 Tbid., pp. 465, 545, 555 f. Human invention, however, antedates history, 
ibid., pp. 515 £. 
3 Tbid., p. 245. 5 Tbid., p. 244. 
‘ Ibid., p. 59. ® Ibid., ch. XX. 
