ABSTRACT
This chapter considers social change from two points of view: first, as a result of external pressures; secondly, as a form of organic adaptation to changing conditions. It argues that preparedness for change on the part of society depends much more upon mental adaptations of a thinking being than upon the slow organic adaptations of a living being; and that the forces which now produce change most obviously, were human purposes and aims, rather than the natural forces of environmental pressure or the natural ends of organic growth and development. Society is certainly pushed along its path; society also undoubtedly grows into this or that new state. The chapter considers the mental life of society, and the purposes of society and their origin and significance. The life-forces and conditions of organic growth were always at work; and from the very first the influence of mind, if only in its simplest forms, was making itself felt.
