  The solution consists in interpreting nature after a social analogy. The following thought-experiment illustrates the idea: “Let us imagine a great multitude of human beings, varying in tastes and endowments as widely as human beings are known to do, and let us suppose this multitude suddenly to find themselves, as Adam and Eve did, in an ample Paradise enriched sufficiently with diverse natural resources to make the attainment of high civilization possible” (1911: 54). It is obvious to Ward that such individuals would gradually achieve a hierarchical, specialized form of social organization. To a hypothetical external observer, the initial phases of the new life of the selected individuals will appear utterly chaotic, but in due course order and regularity would emerge: “…in place of an incoherent multitude, all seemingly acting at random, we should have a social and economic organization, every member of which had his appropriate place and function” (55–56).