Excerpt from Our Nation's Peril: Social Ideals and Social Progress It is not altogether in the field of analogy, however, that the comparative method is fruitful in anthropological and sociological researches. The differences between man and his poor relations of the lower animal types are quite as interesting and instructive as the likenesses. If reversion to animal traits and conduct throws important light on the problems of criminal anthropology and degeneration in human societies, it is in quite another direction that we must turn for our explanation of those progressive social and individual tendencies which have raised man above the brute creation and inspired him to transform and regenerate himself and his world-environment. Man, as far as we know, is the only animal capable of creating ideals - of projecting the synthetic imagination into the realm of future possibilities, and of erecting there beacon-lights which will guide and inspire him to higher and ever higher achievements. 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.