her
aristocratic proprietors to whom the land was apportioned in great
estates, the old free farming population disappeared and slavery became
a useful adjunct in the methods adopted for cultivating the soil. On
the other hand, the old village community where land was held in common
developed a small co-operative group closely united on the basis of
mutual aid. The great landed estates of England and Germany must, so
long as they continue, influence the type of social order and of
government that will exist in those countries.

As the individual is in a measure subservient to the external laws
about him, so must the social group of which he forms a part be so
controlled. The flexibility and variability of human nature, with its
power of adaptation, make it possible to develop different forms of
social order. The subjective side of social development, wherein the
individual seeks to supply his own wants and follow the directions of
his own will, must ever be a modifying power acting upon the social
organization. Thus society becomes a great complex of variabilities
which cannot be reduced to exact laws similar to those found in
physical nature. Nevertheless, if society in its development is not
dependent upon immutable laws similar to those discovered in the forces
of nature, yet as part of the great scheme of nature it is directly
dependent upon the physical forces that permit it to exist the same as
the individual. This would give rise to laws of human association
which are modified by the laws of external nature. Thus, while society
is psychical in its nature, it is ever dependent upon the material and
the physical for its existence. However, through co-operation, man is
able to more completely master his environment than by working
individually. It is only by mutual aid and social organization that he
is able to survive and conquer.

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SUBJECTS FOR FURTHER STUDY

1. Give examples coming within your own observation of the influence
of soil and climate on the character of society.

2. Does the character of the people in Central America depend more on
climate than on race?

3. In what ways does the use of land determine the character of social
order?

4. Are the ideals and habits of thought of the people living along the
Atlantic Coast different from those of the Middle West? If so, in what
respect?

5. Is the attitude toward life of the people of the Dakota wheat belt
different from t