240 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 
This leads our author to discuss the distinction between a pain 
and a pleasure economy, the former based on necessity of struggle 
for existence carried on under the dominating impulse of fear, the 
latter based on life lived under conditions favorable to survival, 
relatively free from competition, resulting in abundance of sur- 
plus energy which manifests itself in motor activity, accompanied 
by the motor sensation of pleasure. 
Under the former economy human institutions have as their 
basis the fear of enemies and pain,! causes lying in the environ- 
ment. But “ the development of human society has gradually 
eliminated from the environment the sources of pain. The 
civilized world has been freed from dangerous beasts and reptiles, 
and the growth of large nations has cut off the danger of invasion 
by barbarous and warlike human foes. . . . The sensory powers 
have free play in analyzing this material into its elements, and 
in reorganizing these elements into valuable goods. These 
changes make a pleasure economy possible and destroy the con- 
ditions which make the subjective environment of the old pain 
economy a necessity.”? This transition is perilous and has 
caused the downfall of many nations owing to their inability to 
make a readjustment. 
The human race is now, he holds, in a state of transition 
from a pain to a pleasure economy.? Under an ideal pleasure 
economy “ there would be two prominent groups of motives, — 
the one prompting actions which increase the pleasure of the in- 
dividual, and the other prompting actions which promote the 
progress of the race. . . . Each tendency to get pleasure at the 
expense of social welfare would be counteracted by the formation 
of some ideal or social institution with which would be coupled 
impulses prompting to their realization. The requisites for 
survival would be those social impulses which preserve individuals 
from temptation, disease and crime. The number of ideals and 
institutions would be gradually increased until their united effect 
would be strong enough to determine the choices of individuals 
and make their conduct conform to the interests of the race.” 4 
1 Theory of Social Forces, p. 75. 3 Ibid., p. 80. 
2 Tbid., p. 76. 4 Ibid., p. 84. 
