Dissolution §177. When, in Chapter 22, we glanced at the cycle of changes throughwhich every existence passes, in a short time or in a time almost infinitelylong -- when the opposite re-distributions of matter and motion implied wereseverally distinguished as Evolution and Dissolution. the natures of thetwo, and the conditions under which they respectively occur, were specifiedin general terms. Since then, we have contemplated the phenomena of Evolutionin detail, and have followed them out to those states of equilibrium in whichthey all end. To complete the argument we must now contemplate, somewhatmore in detail than before, the complementary phenomena of Dissolution. Not,indeed, that we need dwell long on Dissolution, which has none of those variousand interesting aspects which Evolution presents; but something more mustbe said than has yet been said.
It was shown that neither of these two antagonist processes goes on unqualifiedby the other, and that a movement towards either is a differential resultof the conflict between them. An evolving aggregate, while on the averagelosing motion and integrating, is always, in one way or other, receivingsome motion and to that extent disintegrating; and after the integrativechanges have ceased to predominate, the reception of motion, though perpetuallychecked by its dissipation, constantly tends to produce a reverse transformation,and eventually does produce it. When Evolution has run its course -- whenan aggregate has reached that equilibrium in which its changes end, it thereafterremains subject to all actions in its environment which may increase thequantity of motion it contains, and which in course of time are sure, eitherslowly or suddenly, to give its parts such excess of motion as will causedisintegration. According as its size, its nature, and its conditions determine,its dissolution may come quickly or may be indefinitely delayed -- may occurin a few days or may be postponed for billions of years. But exposed as itis to the contingencies not simply of its immediate neighbourhood but ofa Universe everywhere in motion, the time must at last come when, eitheralone or in company with surrounding aggregates, it has its parts dispersed.
The process of dissolution so caused we have here to look at as it takesplace in aggregates of different orders. The course of change being the reverseof that hitherto traced, we may properly take the illustrations of it inthe reverse order -- beginning with the most complex and ending with themost simple. §178. Regarding the evolution of a society as at once an increasein the number of individuals integrated into a corporate body, an increasein the masses and varieties of the parts into which this corporate body divides,as well as of the actions called their functions, and an increase in thedegree of combination among these masses and their functions; we shall seethat social dissolution conforms to the general law in being, materiallyconsidered, a disintegration, and, dynamically considered, a decrease inthe movements of wholes and an increase the movements of parts; while itfurther conforms to the general law in being, caused by an excess of motionin some way or other received from without.
It is obvious that the social dissolution which follows the aggressionof mother nation, and which, as history shows us, is apt to occur when socialevolution has ended and decay has begun, is, under its broadest, aspect,the reception of a new external motion; and when, as sometimes happens, theconquered society is dispersed, or when its component divisions fall apart,its dissolution is literally a cessation of those corporate movements whichthe society, both in its army and in its industrial bodies, presented, anda lapse into individual or uncombined movements.
Again, social disorder, however caused, entails a decrease of integratedmovements and an increase of disintegrated movements. As the disorder progressesthe political actions previously combined become uncombined: there arisethe antagonistic actions of riot or revolt. Simultaneously, the industrialand commercial processes that were co-ordinated throughout the body politic,are broken up; and only the local, or small, trading transactions continue.
And each further disorganizing change diminishes the joint operations bywhich men satisfy their wants, and leaves them to satisfy their wants, asbest they can, by separate operations. Of the way in which such distintegrationsare set up in a society that has evolved to the limit of its type, and reacheda state of moving equilibrium, a good illustration is furnished by Japan.
The finished fabric into which its people have organized themselves, maintainedan almost constant state so long as it was preserved from fresh externalforces. But as soon as it received an impact from European civilization,partly by armed aggression, partly by commercial impulse, partly by the influenceof ideas, this fabric began to fall to pieces. There is now in progress apolitical dissolution.*<* This was written in 1867.> Probably a politicalreorganization will follow; but, be this as it may, the change thus far producedby an outer action is a change towards dissolution -- a change from integratedmotions to disintegrated motions.
