Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/381

 METAPHYSICAL ELEMENTS IN SOCIOLOGY

from that action simply because the majority of men perform it. This is directly in line with the contention above (pp. 361 ff.) to the effect that social process reacts upon and effects changes in the social matter. Furthermore, social evolution is spiritual evolution ; and we must note another difference between spiritual evolution, on the one hand, and cosmic and organic evolution, on the other, on the ground that the latter two proceed by slow and gradual accretions, with only slight variations arising for natural selection to work upon. But spiritual evolution proceeds by leaps and jumps, as history very conclusively shows, in so far that social progress cannot be accounted for without considering the prophets and geniuses who were the great forerunners of epoch- making movements, and then the slow approximation to their standards on the part of the mass of the people; and, therefore, not alone must the formula for social evolution take these facts into account, but it shows also that when we attack the problem of social evolution we must come to it armed with more than the evolutionary formula current in natural science, if we wish to explain anything in the societary world.

The position just taken that every individual's reaction changes the environment brings with it another point. Examine the principle which M. Tarde puts central in all societary phe- nomena the principle of imitation and it must be conceived of in internal, and not in external, terms in order to make it valid. Mr. Bosanquet says:

Imitation is a bald and partial rendering of that complex reciprocal reference which constitutes social co-operation. To say that imitation is char- acteristic of society is like saying that repetition is the soul of design. 11

Imitation cannot be made a solely external process ; for its nature will not permit it. To make it such would be almost like a man holding a hammer on a rivet and another striking it, and then calling that process imitation. 22 In societary processes this con- tact must be stated in inner terms. What is meant by this will be somewhat explained in the next paragraph but one.

n Mind, N. S., Vol. VI, p. 7.

" For a further consideration of this, see Part II, the discussion of Imitation.