practically coeval with Cæsar, Constantine, Charlemagne, St. Louis, Charles V, and Victoria; Bacon, Newton, and Darwin are but the younger contemporaries of Thales, Plato, and Aristotle."

Perhaps this short survey of a great subject will seem ambitious to many. But evolution means the slow unfolding of hidden potentialities. We must study prehistoric man as well as ancient man because the changes wrought in social evolution are so gradual that it is only by examining the long period that we can become conscious of their real significance. The change that is observable at the end of a long period is indistinguishable in the briefer interval. This is the author's justification for attempting to present as an organic whole a subject the divisions of which specialists often find quite baffling. In the effort to classify and generalize a great body of knowledge, the "clumsy forceps of our minds" always crush the truth a little and mar it. Yet there is a genuine gain from the very effort to attain perspective, although violence may be done to the strict accuracy of certain details. The artist suppresses many things in order to strengthen the general impression that the picture is to make. Thus, perhaps, the scientist can learn from his fellow seeker after truth.

The selected bibliographies which are appended after each chapter constitute the best works on specific points discussed in the course of the chapter.

The illustrations have been carefully selected and arranged with a view to illuminate certain points made in the text which the average student would otherwise be unable to visualize. The author would have considerable emphasis placed upon this use of the illustrations since each has been chosen for a definite purpose.

The selected bibliographies which are appended after each chapter constitute the best works on specific points discussed in the course of the chapter.

The author's indebtedness to Professor Franklin H. Giddings for encouragement and stimulating suggestions is greater than can be expressed in a formal preface. But the author wishes to express his appreciative thanks to Dr. Giddings for permission to use unpublished material, for reading the manuscript, and for making many criticisms and suggestions which have been of greatest service.

The author's thanks are also due Professor Leonard S. Blakey and Mr. B. J. Baldwin for reading parts of the manuscript and for suggesting the revision of certain details. Acknowledgments and thanks are due the following authors for the courteous permission accorded to copy and reproduce certain diagrams, maps and illustrations from their works: Professor F. Birkner, Der Diluviale Mensch in Europa; Professor Katharine Coman, The Industrial History of the United States; Professor Joseph Déchelette, Manuel D'Archéologie Prêhistorique; Dr. Robert Forrer, Urgeschichte des Europäers; Professor James Geikie, The Great Ice Age; Professor M. M. Metcalf, Organic Evolution; Professor William Z. Ripley, The Races of Europe; and Professor E. L. Thorndike, Individuality. For extending the same courtesy the author wishes to thank the editors of L'Anthropologie, The Open Court Publishing Company, and the editor, Auguste Picard.

To the Century Company the author's thanks are due for courtesy in furnishing many excellent illustrations. from the Century Magazine and other of their publications, and for coöperating with the author to secure the

satisfactory arrangement of certain details in this book. In reading the proof the author was aided by his wife and Miss Charlotte B. Peck, and desires to express his appreciation for this valuable service. The author wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to his wife for encouragement and assistance in the preparation of the book. F. STUART CHAPIN.

Northampton, July, 1913.

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

The publication of the second edition of this book has enabled the author to make a few improvements in the text and to add at the end of Chapter IV, a brief note upon the family as a factor in social evolution. This human institution has received undue emphasis as the original form of association. It seemed well to cite a few opinions upon this point.

Several errors which appeared in the first edition have been corrected. In a few cases the inadvertent omission of quotation marks and credits has been rectified. The author wishes to thank Professor M. M. Metcalf for calling attention to these infelicities. The helpful criticism of other details has been also appreciated by the author.

December, 1914.

F. S. C.

INTRODUCTION

The story of Social Evolution tells how one form of life came to dominate so completely the lives and destinies of all other forms, that for ages the creature man believed himself to be a separate and distinct creation, master of his fate. It is a wonderful story, surpassing in romance and fascination any epic or drama ever written. In the dark ages before recorded history, great forces were active, silently and insensibly working, molding the destinies of the future forms of life. In the process of this evolution an occasional gleam of consciousness began to dawn. Sensibilities became more refined; sympathy and compassion, the products of complex relations, tempered and modified the earlier, cruder adjustments; cruelty and oppression became less and less the guiding forces which governed the relations of conscious beings; tolerance and sympathy became more and more the directing principles of life.

In order to understand the important and determining factors in this process we must examine both the physical and the spiritual basis of man's supremacy. There are certain great principles which guide the growth and development of life. We must study the relation of these principles to man. In the chapters of Part I we shall examine the explanations that have been brought forward by naturalists for the origin of man's physical being. In the chapters of the remaining part of the book we shall examine the factors and the influences which have

xxi