Transactions of the Medical Society of King's College, London.

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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Transactions of the Medical Society of King's College, London. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    By banding with his fellows for a definite object, by con¬ certing means for compassing a pre-determined end, by con¬ centrating an immense number of individual energies on one point, by the accumulation of resources, by the division of labour. And this view seems to me to vindicate from the charge of unnaturalness, that advanced, and elaborate, and refined state of civilisation in which we find ourselves. For surely that to which man himself has brought himself, that which springs spontaneously from the exigencies of his nature, must be natural. Given, (in mathematical phrase) the formula that would represent the various factors or forces of man’s nature and circumstances, and civilisation would be their inevitable resultant. It is as much man’s nature to be progressive as it is that of the beasts to stagnate in their primaeval help¬ lessness. And how does man thus band together, and concert, and concentrate, and accumulate? By forming societies, and associations, and companies. Yes, and we may even include under the same category those wider systems, those great political and social combinations, which have parcelled out the world into republics, and principalities, and kingdoms, and empires. And surely there never was a time in the history of the world so teeming with societies and combinations of men as the present day. Just look around you and think of the immense number of societies there are in London alone. There is hardly a thing that can be named or thought of that is not represented by a society; there is not an object that man pursues, not a science that he studies, not an enterprise that he undertakes, that is not represented by a society. For religious objects how many there are!—The Bible Society,
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