THE RELATION OF INSTITUTIONS TO ENVIRONMENT. 711 



the rule is fixed by the judges in the collective interest, but in time the 

 custom comes to be followed as a motive by each normal individual of 

 the group. Thus mercy is engendered. In boreal lands it is needful 

 to lay up store against the long winter, and thereby thrift is developed 

 and property right is strengthened, in connection with hospitality such 

 as arises in the desert. At the same time life is endangered and the 

 group weakened through predatiou, and thus, in the eyes of the sages, 

 theft is the gravest of crimes and is severely punished. At first the 

 regulation is collective in the general interest, but in time the fear of 

 punishment and the hope of commendation become habitual, and the 

 habit of uprightness grows into upright motive. Thus probity is 

 engendered. Other environments tend toward the development of 

 special provisions designed to promote welfare under the special con- 

 ditions. Always these laws bud as collective regulations, burgeon as 

 individual habits, and blossom as altruistic motives, which duly fruit 

 in improved laws; and thus justice, truth, mercy, and probity come up 

 to glorify mankind. 



So organizations which find their germ among the lower organisms 

 attain full development only among enlightened men. At first the 

 organizations are local and reflect the local environment ; they grow 

 into institutions, which in like manner reflect the surroundings of the 

 people by whom they are framed; through contact and commingling of 

 peoples the organizations are enlarged and the institutions enriched and 

 made more beneficent; and the institutional laws pass into motives and 

 become the noblest of human characters. In the beginning the organi- 

 zations, institutions, motives even, are of the earth earthy, and, like the 

 provincial flora or fauna, pertain to the tract in which they were devel- 

 oped; but through combination of the good and condemnation of the 

 bad as the organizations spread, they are exalted ever higher and 

 higher in the perfection of humanity. Such is the history of the past, 

 and such the promise for the future. 



