That is not lost which a friend gets. The shortest road is where the company’s good. A man is known by the company he keeps. Do unto others as you would have others do to you. A man who would have friends must show himself friendly. One bad example spoils many precepts. Honesty is the best policy. One good turn deserves another. Birds of a feather flock together. As the twig is bent, the tree is inclined. People who live in glass houses mustn’t throw stones. Bare is the gift without the giver. What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee. He laughs best who laughs last. To make a happy couple, the husband must be deaf and the wife blind. Charity gives itself rich; covetousness hoards itself poor. The nature of the primitive social thought that has been preserved through proverbs and sayings justifies the following observations. (1) Primitive social thought was exceedingly simple, crude, and undeveloped. (2) It was uncorrelated and unsystematic. (3) A classification of the total number of known proverbs of any primitive people into individual and social types shows that not more than ten per cent are social. Primitive thinking was done in terms of the welfare of the individual himself. The social thought was commonly of individualistic origin. A social idea was originally not suggested for its own sake or disinterestedly, but for the reason that its observance would enable individuals to live together more harmoniously and prosperously. (4) Social proverbs employ figures of speech. Similes from nature are frequent; physical analogies are not uncommon. Many of these figures disclose a rural or bucolic mind. (5) Frequently, the social proverbs of the various races pertain to family and community relationships. The sense of social responsibility does not penetrate as a rule beyond the small group. The responsibility of group to group is rarely expressed or implied. The social vision does not extend to large groups. (6) A comparative study of primitive social sayings indicates countless similarities, and testifies to the uniformity of human experiences and social needs, irrespective of racial distinctions. These resemblances do not imply collaboration, collusion, or imitation. They mean that the needs of primitive individuals in various and unrelated parts of the world have everywhere led the human mind out in search of socially satisfactory explanations. Primitive thinking produced fundamental social concepts, such as kinship, authority, dependence, and tribal loyalty. CHAPTER III THE SOCIAL THOUGHT OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS