Page:Riddles of the Sphinx (1891).djvu/20

XX XX ANALYSIS OF CONTEXTS. PAGE CHAPTER VIII. FORMULAS OF THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 212 i. Evolutionism asserts that the course of the world conforms to the conception of a process. But a process of what ? 2. Mr. Spencer's formula true as far as it goes, but inadequate. $ 3. Von Hartmann's formula: not applicable to the inorganic. 4.- The perfection of the societies of the ants and bees. But, 5, it is attained by the sacrifice of the individual and of the possibility of progress. 6. This suggests that real progress concurrently develops the individual and the social medium. 7. Shown in actual society, in the division of labour, 8, in the growth of knowledge and science, 9, in military strength, $ 10, in social inter- course, and ii, may be traced also in the earlier stages of human evolution. 12. Apparent exceptions. Caste States have higher social structure, but repress individuality. Greece sacrificed the family to the State, but could not control the individual. Rome secured the self-subordination of the individuals, but made them too mediocre to find any one who could adapt the Roman training to a universal empire. 13. Among animals both individuality and sociality are at a lower stage. 14. In plants and the lowest animals individu- ality becomes too faint to be any longer distinguished from the social medium. Perhaps dependence on it has here become a physical bond, as, S 15, is certainly the case in inorganic nature, where physical combination is the analogue of society and individuality is evanes- cent. 1 6. In the evolution of chemical substances, the most complex came last, though before life. But even in the elements there are signs of individual differ- ences. 17. The precosmic condition of atoms before combination began. 18. But can this formula of Evo- lution also supply an ideal? Yes, for as yet neither society nor individuals are perfect. Evidence that we are imperfectly individualized. Hence, 19, the ideal ot perfect individuals in a perfect society is the ideal of Heaven. 20. The advantages of this formula.