ABSTRACT
The study of evolution at large makes familiar the truth that the nature of a thing is far from being fixed. Throughout the organic world this change of nature is practically universal. As evolution implies gradual transition, it follows that extremely unlike as incorporated bodies of men may become, sharp divisions are impracticable. The desire for companionship is one prompter: though not universal, sociality is a general trait of human beings which leads to aggregation. Of social groups which satisfy the desire for companionship only, those formed by the Esquimaux may be named. The men composing one of them are severally independent. The truth to be emphasized is that a body politic which has to operate on other such bodies, and to that end must wield the combined forces of its component units, is fundamentally unlike a body politic which has to operate only on its component units.
