Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/666

 652 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

the contents of the social mind, and consequently a development of individuals so far as they are influenced by the social mind. For instance, when groups hitherto aloof strike up intercourse, all manner of customs are put in circulation. The result is not a potpourri, but an all-round advance brought about by the drop- ping out of those forms of life most inconvenient and the spread of those most fit and commodious. Similarly, when many beliefs concerning anything are set afloat, the high death rate among them assures the triumph of those beliefs which for the time and place are truest. And every extension of intercourse permits a further beneficent selection. Here we glimpse the secret of the great historical cross-fertilizations of culture, Phoenicia with Egypt, Greece with the Orient, Israel with the Graeco-Roman world, Christendom with the Moors.

Now what happens when men communicate to one another their desires and their valuations of the object of desire ? What in such cases are the requisites of survival ? Clearly not as with customs, fitness; for desires are neither fit nor unfit. Clearly not as with beliefs, truth; for desires are neither true nor untrue. Of course, intense desires prevail over weak ones, and the pref- erences of the superior man reverberate farther than the pref- erences of the mean man. Valuations, moreover, are judgments, and those which declare the real worth of the prizes of life improve thereby their chances of survival. But in this clash and contention the leading law of selection will be this : The desires most egoistic and the valuations most menacing to the common welfare are suppressed ; while a fillip is given to those desires and esti- mates that many may entertain in safety, e.g., desire for common enjoyment a?id esteem of collective or ideal goods.

A practice is eliminated by refusal to imitate, a belief by refusal to accept. But a desire or valuation is eliminated chiefly by refusal to communicate. One may be inflamed by bestial lusts or judge life from the point of view of a Yahoo, but he refrains from deliberately inciting his neighbors in turn. Peo- ple who live in glass houses will not extol stone-throwing; and we all live in glass houses. The libertine will not care to spread