Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER X SOCIAL HEREDITY S soon as we come to grasp the application of the principle of evolution described in the previous chapters, we can hardly fail to perceive that the significance of its bearing on the future of civilization is quite out of the ordinary. The peoples who apply to practical affairs the lessons which are involved will inevitably become the leaders and organizers of the world. The future science of civilization may be summed up in a sentence. It will be the science of Power. It is waste of time to spend effort discussing other principles of society. There is only one type towards which the universal process of civilization moves--the type of society in which Power is realized to the highest degree. It is therefore of the first importance to grasp firmly the essential facts that distinguish the science of Power in society from the science of Power everywhere else throughout life. Now it has been already said that Darwinism is strictly the science only of the evolution of the individual. It is not the science of the evolution of society. This latter science rests fundamentally on a principle which is never encountered in the evolution of the individual. It may be noticed in the world with which Darwin dealt that the mechanism, through which Power has been accumulated and perfected in the individual in the rise upwards through orders and types to the highest forms of life, is always the same. The entire order of progress rests on the single fact of the continued transmission of the winning qualities from generation to generation through heredity in the individual. In a few words the Darwinian hypothesis may be summarized. We are met in life by the fact of universal variation. Every organism is variable throughout.1...
