276 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 
If a society desires to preserve its type, it should possess a sum total of 
mental activity equal to that of all its rivals; i. e., it ought to assimilate all 
the ideas of its neighbors. As soon as a society is not capable of this effort 
its denationalization is inevitable, its type is condemned. Passion for the 
new, then, is a special sign by which one can recognize that a nation is still in 
its period of growth. The connoisseur of spiritual things who is on the 
watch for every fresh exotic production, preserves his nation from stagnation 
and torpor. To understand everything, to feel everything, — this it is that 
makes the grandeur of nations as of individuals. 
That imitation as here used is not merely instinctive but rather 
reflective is shown not only by use of the simile expressed by the 
word connoisseur but also by the following: — 
To provoke imitation is to attack; to endure a propaganda (or a system 
of teaching) with the purpose of selecting parts for personal advancement is 
to defend oneself. Now it is absolutely impossible to impose imitation by 
violent methods since such methods stir up antagonistic feelings which act 
by way of constraint. One can only provoke imitation. The nations which 
have this faculty in a high degree win out in the struggle for existence while 
those who have it in a low degree, fail. . . . Imitation varies, naturally, 
within wide limits. Up toa certain point it preserves national individuality 
but carried further it can destroy it. . . . The societies which know how to 
preserve a just balance . . . prosper; those who do not know how, perish.? 
The means which assure mental preponderance, i. e., assimila- 
tion and expansion, are exactly analogous to those which today 
assure political preponderance: organization and equipment 
(outillage). The battle of the future is to be between ideas rather 
than armies, and for this intellectual struggle artists, poets, 
savants and women are needed. Moreover there is need of an 
organization of peaceful propaganda. The outcome will be the 
amelioration of every department of life. Among other things 
there will be an increase in the individuality of nations. 
Each nation will endeavor to be self-sufficient, to individualize. Individ- 
uality is most marked among the most advanced civilizations. All savages 
are alike. To produce characters as different as Dante, Michael Angelo and 
Spinoza requires high intellectual culture ina group. In the first place divi- 
sion of labor is proportional to the degree of civilization. . . . But division 
of labor is true of societies with relation to humanity. After having at- 
tempted to cultivate in the same degree the totality of human knowledge 
there may come a time when nations will specialize, — certain nations, for 
example, having greater aptitude for the natural sciences will cultivate them 
in preference to the social sciences.5 
1 Les Luttes, p. 301; cf. p. 541. 3 Ibid., pp. 305 f. 5 Ibid., p. 324. 
2 Tbid., p. 303. 4 Ibid., p. 438. 
