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a new aspect, by the individual brain that has momentarily escaped the social hyp- nosis. It is thanks to this perception of external nature at a new angle that the meeting of imitative rays in the brain of the savant, the engineer, the artist, becomes fecund and is transformed into invention. Thanks to this direct and genial contact with nature, two known ideas, which hitherto appeared to have nothing in common, appear united in a causal relationship. Newton, seeing an apple fall, conceived the fall of bodies and the movement of the moon around the earth as two similar phe- nomena, results of the same cause, universal gravitation.
Whatever, on the one hand, favors the spread and interference of examples, and whatever, on the other hand, favors variety, inequality, individual originality, tends to increase inventiveness, to push on to progress. An enlightened democracy need not fear individual singularities and superiorities, since, thanks to diffusive imitation, the singular and superior individual works only for the whole. All that is best in the individual becomes socialized.
Will advancing civilization render less and less necessary these diversities and even these individual superiorities ? No, for, other things being equal, the simplest inventions appear first. In proportion as society renders easier the imitative expan- sion of ancient inventions, the difficulty of new inventions becomes greater, for the same reason that the longer a mine is exploited, the greater also becomes the diffi- culty of extracting new minerals. The greatest geniuses are needed in order that new branches may spring forth on the old trunk of mathematics, physics, biology, etc. It is as impossible for the average civilized man to rise to new inventions as it is for a child of five years to collect with his hands fruit six feet above his head. But when a great man has gathered fruit high on the boughs of the tree of science, men of the lowest races may eat thereof. Condensed from a paper read by M. G. TARDE before the Socie'te' de Sociologie de Paris, entitled, " L'invention conside're'e comme moteur de revolution sociale," and published in Revue Internationale de sociologie for July, 1902. R. M.
Education and the Social Ideal. When education is consciously regarded as a process of social transformation, the educational necessity of a definite concep- tion of the social end to be attained through education becomes apparent. The school cannot consciously assist in transforming society unless the teacher has clearly in mind an ideal humanity into which society is to be transformed.
There are at least three elements that must enter into a rational and realizable social ideal : (l) a high degree of social intelligence ; (2) an improved social organi- zation resulting from social economy ; and (3) the co-operative spirit.
Social intelligence is a manifestation of social consciousness, with which it develops part passu. It denotes the ability of society to act in the interest of its mem- bers. The development of the consciousness of the individual is the natural outcome of his experience in looking out for himself. The similar experience of each social group warrants us in assuming that social progress may be depended upon to develop the consciousness of each group, and this consciousness will manifest itself in the gradual formation of the social intelligence, which has been defined as that "con- sensus of individual intelligence which forms a public opinion, a public conscience, a public will, and is manifested in law, institutions, and administration." The intensi- fication of the social consciousness and the improvement of social intelligence seem to be the inevitable concomitants of further social development.
Social intelligence will result in the social employment of the principle of economy. " The history of progress," says Ritchie, " is the record of a gradual elimi- nation of waste." The elimination of waste is a characteristic of intelligent action. Progress in individual or social intelligence may be measured by the degree of economy practiced.
The third indispensable element of the social ideal is the co-operative spirit, and this element is implied by the other two. Compulsory co-operation in the attainment of a worthy social ideal means either that the social ideal conceived is not a rational one, or that the individual is not intelligent enough to see that his interests are bound up in its realization. Voluntary co-operation alone can eliminate the waste charac- teristic of modern society. Competition, it is said, is the mainspring of human prog- ress. Competition, however, may be divided into rivalry in securing individual
