A comparative survey of the history of nations, or what is called “universal history,” will readily yield to us, as the first and most general result, evidence of a continually _increasing variety_ of human activities, both in the life of individuals and in that of families and states. This differentiation or separation, this constantly increasing divergence of human character and the form of human life, is caused by the ever advancing and more complete division of labour among individuals. While the most ancient and lowest stages of human civilization show us throughout the same rude and simple conditions, we see in every succeeding period of history, among different nations, a greater variety of customs, practices, and institutions. The increasing division of labour necessitates an increasing variety of forms corresponding to it. This is expressed even in the formation of the human face. Among the lowest tribes of nations, most of the individuals resemble one another so much that European travellers often cannot distinguish them at all. With increasing civilization the physiognomy of individuals becomes differentiated, and finally, among the most highly civilized nations, the English and Germans, the divergence in the characters of the face is so great that we very rarely mistake one face for another. The second great fundamental law which is obvious in the history of nations is the great law of progress or perfecting. Taken as a whole, the history of man is the history of his _progressive development_. It is true that everywhere and at all times we may notice individual retrogressions, or observe that crooked roads towards progress have been taken, which lead only towards one-sided and external perfecting, and thus deviate more and more from the higher goal of internal and enduring perfecting. However, on the whole, the movement of development of all mankind is and remains a progressive one, inasmuch as man continually removes himself further from his ape-like ancestors, and continually approaches nearer to his own ideal. Now, if we wish to know what causes actually determine these two great laws of development in man, namely, the law of divergence and the law of progress, we must compare them with the corresponding laws of development in animals, and on a close examination we shall inevitably come to the conclusion that the phenomena, as well as their causes, are exactly the same in the two cases. The course of development in man, just as in that of animals, being directed by the two fundamental laws of differentiation and perfecting, is determined solely by purely mechanical causes, and is solely the necessary consequence of natural selection in the struggle for life.