STUDIES IN THE EVOLUTION OF

INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

CHAPTER I

THE IDEA OF EVOLUTION IN SOCIETY

THE history of ideas is the history of man. Ideas distinguish man from all lower animals, and all that is significant in human history may be traced back to ideas. From time to time, in the history of mankind, an idea of such tremendous import has found acceptance in the minds and hearts of men that it has been followed by a new era in the progress of the human race. The idea of Je

hovah, which found acceptance among the ancient Hebrews, was one of these germinal ideas, which made the world ever thereafter a different world. That idea has been moulding human history ever since it was first clearly received and promulgated. The idea of itself, from the time of its reception up to the present, has been growing larger, and more elevated and refined. It has undergone a perpetual process of purification, and has been one of the great psychical forces which give shape to human history. Christianity came into the world

as the outcome of another grand idea, and since its reception the world has been a new world. Its mighty significance has been recognized in dating all events with reference to the founder of that religion. Everything which happens is either before Christ or after Christ. Altogether apart from any peculiar belief in the mission and person of Christ, this could not be otherwise. Passing on down the stream of human history, we come to still another idea which has made the world different from what it was before, and is thus giving direction to human history. This is the idea of evolution, the general acceptance of which we must recognize as the distinguishing characteristic of nineteenth century thought.

This idea of evolution is one of long growth.1 Some foreshadowings may be found in the early philosophy of the Greeks, and the idea recurs from time to time in the history of philosophical speculation. By the time of Charles Darwin, many naturalists had become convinced in a general way that there was a development from the lower to the higher forms of life, but they had not been able to tell how it had taken place. The peculiar service of Darwin was the explanation of the method of biological development by means of the theory of natural selection. It was in 1859 that he published his great work entitled, "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection,"

1 For a history of the idea, see Osborn, "From the Greeks to Darwin," 2d ed., New York, 1899.

and so convincing was the evidence he submitted that the general acceptance of the idea of evolution dates from the publication of this book. It is interesting to note that both Darwin and Wallace, who discovered the theory of natural selection independently, received special assistance from Malthus' work on population.

Darwin's researches were restricted almost altogether to the evolution of the individual organism. Even now, when evolution is mentioned, we think of the evolution of the individual. It is from this standpoint that Huxley - Darwin's bulldog, as he was called - defines the term: "Evolution or development is, in fact, at present employed in biology as a general name for the history of the steps by which any living being has acquired the morphological and physiological characters which distinguish it." A recent writer gives the following definition: "By evolution we mean to-day not only that all living forms have descended from those living in the past, but also that new forms have arisen from the old ones."2 This writer says further that from the ranks of biologists few now arise to question the correctness of the theory of evolution, although many no longer regard Darwin's theory of natural selection as a sufficient

1 "Evolution in Biology," 1878, Collected Essays, New York, 1896, Vol. II, p. 196.

2 "Darwinism in the Light of Modern Criticism," by Thomas Hunt Morgan, Ph.D., Professor of Biology, Bryn Mawr College, Harper's Monthly Magazine, February, 1903, p. 476.

explanation of the method of development. The biologists, however, while confining themselves for the most part to the physiological and individual aspects of evolution, knew well enough that it had a wider meaning for man. To expound this wider and deeper meaning was the work of Herbert Spencer.

Four years before Darwin published his "Origin of Species," Spencer published his "Principles of Psychology," in which he enunciates the principle of mental evolution. Two years later (1857) he made a much wider application of the idea in an essay entitled, "Progress: Its Law and Cause." 1 The same process, he says in this essay, we may see "alike in the earliest changes of the Universe to which we can reason our way back; and in the earliest changes which we can inductively establish; it is seen in the geologic and climatic evolution of the Earth, and of every single organism on its surface; it is seen in the evolution of Humanity, whether contemplated in the civilized individual, or in the aggregation of races; it is seen in the evolution of Society in respect alike of its political, its religious, and its economical organization; and it is seen in the evolution of all those endless concrete and abstract products of human activity which constitute the environment of our daily life." It is probably due to Herbert Spencer

1 Westminster Review, April, 1857, p. 255. Reprinted in "Illustrations of Universal Progress; a Series of Discussions," by Herbert Spencer, New York, 1874.

more than to any other one person that we have come to recognize the applicability of evolution to the various departments of the social life of man. We have an evolution of the body, and also an evolution of the mind, and we have an evolution of society, which is the highest form of life.1

Evolution in its broadest terms is defined by Spencer as follows, "Evolution is an integration of matter and concomitant dissipation of motion; during which the matter passes from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity; and during which the retained motion undergoes a parallel transformation."2 This definition, although not exhaustive, is especially helpful as an approach to the study of the evolution of society.

Early society is little more than a mere mass of men, composed of individuals with like occupations, like habits, like beliefs. In a few individuals. we see all. Even in physical characteristics, it is altogether probable that differences among highly civilized men are far more numerous. This is especially noticeable in the matter of color of hair

1 For an interesting discussion of the relations of the individual man to society, see a paper by the late Professor Joseph Le Conte, entitled, "The Effects of the Theory of Evolution on Education," published in the Proceedings and Addresses of the Nationa. Educational Association, held in Denver, 1895, p. 149.

2" First Principles of a New System of Philosophy," 2d ed., New York, 1868, p. 396. See also an article by Spencer, entitled "What is Social Progress?" Nineteenth Century Magazine, Vol. XLIV, P. 348,