There  are  two  great  classes  of  aggregates  with
which  the  social  aggregate  may  be  compared — the
inorganic  and  the  organic.  Are  the  attributes  of  a
society  in  any  way  like  those  of  a  not-living  body?
or  are  they  in  any  way  like  those  of  a  living  body?
or  are  they  entirely  unlike  those  of  both?

The  first  of  these  questions  needs  only  to  be  asked
to  be  answered  in  the  negative.  A  whole  of  which
the  parts  are  alive,  cannot,  in  its  general  characters,
be  like  lifeless  wholes.  The  second  question,  not  to
be  thus  promptly  answered,  is  to  be  answered  in
the  affirmative.  The  reasons  for  asserting  that  the
permanent  relations  among  the  parts  of  a  society,
are  analogous  to  the  permanent  relations  among  the
parts  of  a  living  body,  we  have  now  to  consider.
A  Society  Is  an  Organism

214.  When  we  say  that  growth  is  common  to
social  aggregates  and  organic  aggregates,  we  do  not
thus  entirely  exclude  community  with  inorganic
aggregates.  Some  of  these,  as  crystals,  grow  in  a
visible  manner;  and  all  of  them,  on  the  hypothesis
of  evolution,  have  arisen  by  integration  at  some
time  or  other.  Nevertheless,  compared  with  things
we  call  inanimate,  living  bodies  and  societies  so
conspicuously  exhibit  augmentation  of  mass,  that
we  may  fairly  regard  this  as  characterizing  them
both.  Many  organisms  grow  throughout  their  lives;


and  the  rest  grow  throughout  considerable  parts  of
their  lives.  Social  growth  usually  continues  either
up  to  times  when  the  societies  divide,  or  up  to  times
when  they  are  overwhelmed.
Here,  then,  is  the  first  trait  by  which  societies  ally
themselves  with  the  organic  world  and  substantially
distinguish  themselves  from  the  inorganic  world.
