An Examination of Society from the Standpoint of Evolution (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from An Examination of Society From the Standpoint of Evolution

The application of the main thesis to universal his tory involves an inquiry into the decline and fall of the earlier historic civilizations. The line of human progress has, indeed, passed up from prehistoric beginnings through the ancient oriental and classic worlds into modern western society. But the ancient civilizations, de spite their progress, did not endure; and the wrecks of many nations lie along the path of social development. Some of the later institutions of progressive society have issued from the struggles of earlier historic societies with the problem of their decline and fall; and if our inquiry should ignore the retrogressive aspects of human history we should be embarrassed in the treatment of these later institutions. Social development, as revealed by universal history, is not only a struggle for progress, but a struggle against retrogression.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.