INVENTION AND PRODUCTION 237 
An apparent strain after the novel characterizes all his writings, 
and in the earlier, especially, deductive rather than inductive 
reasoning. That he has given the world hastily-formed hypothe- 
ses unsupported by scientific investigation is indicated by the 
fact that he has had but few followers, though many admirers, 
and that he has so frequently shifted his position and negatived 
former conclusions. Such a writer is frequently suggestive but 
rarely convincing.! 
One doctrine formulated by him, however, seems to have found 
an enduring place in social philosophy which will be strengthened, 
I believe, in the light of his recent corrections, — his theory of the 
contrast between a pain and a pleasure economy, or progress as 
the result of a surplus rather than a deficit economy. 
This doctrine rests upon certain biological and psychological 
postulates which must be sketched briefly: — 
i. Biological evolution is neither the result of chance varia- 
tions of adaptive value, preserved by natural selection as with 
the neo-Darwinians, nor the result of the inheritance of acquired 
tendencies or characters as with the neo-Lamarckians but is due 
to the acquirement of surplus energy or variations resulting from 
such surplus which lead to change in environment and this, in 
turn, to permanent modifications.? 
Invading the domain of cytology to get a basis for his psycho- 
logical approach, he makes the following assumptions: (1) that 
consciousness and movement are opposite poles of the same forces 
and that both are present in the beginning of cell growth; (2) 
that the original germ cell has a capacity for consciousness but no 
content until a structure is developed through which will and 
memory are evolved; (3) that growth creates folds and they 
become incipient ovaries, the sex-products of which are nerve 
cells which become differentiated until finally sensation, memory, 
and consciousness are eventually evolved by the process of 
selection.’ 
1 Cf. Ward’s appreciation, Pure Sociology, p. 105. 
2 Heredity and Social Progress, pp. 28 f., 63; Theory of Social Forces, pp. 14 f., 
50 f.; Theory of Prosperity, pp. 20, 159 f., 196. 
3 Heredity and Social Progress, pp. 76, 89, 90. These hypotheses have no 
inductive support. 
