CIVILIZATION AND THE RACE. 65 



by battle, would, during hard times, be increased. None 

 but the best organized and best adapted could hope to 

 escape." 



The law is not limited to animal life but holds good 

 also with man. Professor Morgan says : 



4 ' The alternation of good times and hard times may be 

 illustrated by an example taken from human life. The 

 introduction of ostrich-farming in South Africa brought 

 good times to farmers. Whereupon there followed diver- 

 gence in two directions. Some devoted increased profits 

 to improvements upon their farms, to irrigation works 

 which could not before be afforded, and so forth. For 

 others increased income meant increased expenditure and 

 an easier, if not more luxurious, mode of life. Then came 

 hard times. Others, in Africa and elsewhere, learnt the 

 secret of ostrich-farming. Competition brought down 

 profits, and elimination set in of which variety need 

 hardly be stated." 



These observations convey a moral lesson which 

 will make us appreciate the significance of misfortunes 

 which all creatures have to encounter at times, in the 

 development of life. We would not have reached our 

 present state of civilization had the human race not pre- 

 viously met with enormous hardships and times of trial. 



And the end is not yet, for there is more in store for 

 us, although it is not probable that there will be again 

 such universal and thorough eradication of whole tribes and 

 communities, for civilization holds misfortune in check 

 and acts as a saving power of extraordinary efficiency ; 

 yet in the measure that it does so it retards the develop- 

 ment of the racial type. 



Civilization is a new factor in the world and it is dif- 

 ficult to prophesy what it will accomplish. No one doubts 

 that it is here, nor can we question its beneficial effects 

 which appear most obviously in the mutual assistance that 

 man offers to man in social and charitable institutions, 



