238 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 
Advancing from cytology to physiology, Patten argues ana- 
logically back {rom sociology, endeavoring to explain the asso- 
ciation of cells in the mind by the conscious association of 
men in society.! This is novel and suggestive if not convincing. 
All improvement in mental power, he holds, is due to improve- 
ment in mental mechanism, i. e., in the mechanical arrangement 
of the constituent elements ? and this improvement comes on the 
one hand from surplus energy secured in a favorable environment 
which expends itself in motor activity resulting in the develop- 
ment of the motor feelings of pleasure and pain, and in growth; 
and, on the other hand, as a result of forced migration to escape 
competition, which results in the development of new organs and 
sensory feelings.* 
“ There are thus,” he says, “ two stages of progress, — the bio- 
logic and the social, — corresponding to the two possible environ- 
ments. In the biologic stage beings are pushed into a local 
environment where the objective conditions are so complete that 
little thought is needed to supply the necessities of life. Under 
these conditions the development of the motor powers determines 
who shall survive. The organism becomes a more nearly perfect 
individual because of the growth of organs on the one hand and 
an increase of desire on the other. In the struggle for such an 
environment the beings with the superior motor powers drive out 
those with inferior motor powers. Some of the latter class are, 
however, better fitted to occupy a general environment where 
their sensory powers are of more use than in the local environ- 
ment from which they were driven. The conquered thus find a 
place to live and by the development of some of the social forces 
create for themselves a new society with new requisites for sur- 
vival. When the struggle for existence begins within this new 
environment, those with superior motor powers will again survive, 
while those with an imperfect motor organization, but with 
improved sensory powers, will be forced again into a more general 
environment where new social instincts must be acquired.’ 4 
This last quotation takes our author into the domain of psychol- 
1 Theory of Social Forces, pp. 18 f. 3 [bid., pp. 48, 51. 
2 Toid., pp. 19 f. ‘4 Ibid., p. §2. 
