424 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
instinctive centers which have functioned through long previous periods in preserving the species. These resist fora long time regeneration, do not tend readily to become rudimentary, and hence are ever on the threshold of activity. Prohibition is impos- sible. It this activity is a menace to our present social conditions, substitutions must be offered. In other words, these instinct activities must be channelized into harm- less courses." CLEMENS J. FRANCE, in American Journal of Psychology, July, 1902.
T. J. R.
The Objective Necessity of Progress. Whenever we go out of the narrow circle of our individual life to enter a larger life, we are struck by the great amount of suffering that surrounds us. In order to reconcile the need of happiness with the impossibility of happiness under existing conditions, mankind of today has elaborated a belief in progress, and this belief is a weapon in the struggle for existence. It may be defined as the certainty existing in us that the life of humanity moves toward an increase of happiness on earth, and toward a more complete and harmonious develop- ment of the individual.
The essential, eternal character, so to speak, of life is harmony between everything that lives and the environment. A living creature can exist only so long as the phenom- ena that pass within it are in a certain degree of harmony with those that pass without. If the environment becomes more complex, the organism must in turn become more complex or perish. Take an individual and suppose that some new factor appears in his narrow and simple sphere. The existence of the individual presupposes that his mind reflects with sufficient fidelity the objects that surround him, and that he knows how to react advantageously upon his environment. When a new factor appears, it must necessarily be reflected in his psychic life and produce some opportune reaction. The complication of the environment necessarily entails the complication of the living being.
The external world constantly tends to destroy the established harmony between the living being and its immediate environment. If the modifications which a new factor brings into the system of established relationships are too sharp, the organism perishes. If the conditions of existence change in a less violent manner, the organ- ism, after a crisis more or less severe, succeeds in adapting itself to the new system of relationships. This necessarily causes a new complication in its organization. The more complex the organism, the easier it will be for it to avail itself of changes in the environment, and the better able it will be to protect itself against their harmful con- sequences. This is why, throughout the scale of living beings, the more elevated the organization, the better assured is the life of the organism, and the more independent it is of harmful changes in its environment.
It is in Spencer that we find the clearest and simplest definition of happiness : it is correspondence between the organism and its environment. Every organism tends to attain this correspondence. When this end is reached, life is pursued with the least possible expenditure of forces, without difficulty, without sharp interruptions. Sub- jectively, this correspondence expresses itself by the sentiment of happiness. It results, from this definition, that happiness can be realized under as many forms as there are species of living beings, or even individuals.
The simpler the organism, the more accidental and the more fragile is the combina- tion of circumstances that permit it to live. This fact may be observed in the lower stages of human life. We can easily conceive of perfect harmony between primitive groups and their environment, that is to say, perfect happiness. But it is also certain that this harmony, this happiness, is always very unstable. For example, if the prin- cipal occupation is the chase, the harmony can be interrupted by the disappearance of the animal that affords nourishment.
Changes in the environment of man will always take place. It results from this 'fact that one factor, at least, among those that constitute causes of suffering will always be present. But, in revenge, the human personality, in its progressive growth, will always seize more readily the variations in the environment and become adapted without a profound crisis. A consequence of this will be the progressive growth of the human personality parallel to the increasing complication of the social environment.
What is comprehended in the expression "the growth of the human indi- viduality " ? It is, first, the development of the intellect, which permits man better to
