Man's Place in Nature 217 



ganic evolution is the elimination of unfit varia- 

 tions, the selection of fit variations, and this as a 

 formula remains for us perhaps the greatest 

 lesson that Nature teaches. As we have seen, 

 the modes of selection differ widely, though the 

 logic of the process is always the same. We sub- 

 mit, therefore, that in social progress we have not 

 to combat Nature's method, but to follow it, and 

 that we do so every time that we favor the vir- 

 tuous and thwart the vicious, every time that we 

 reject an ugly product and choose a beautiful one, 

 every time that we vote against militarism and 

 make for peace. It is our prerogative to select 

 those forms of struggle which seem most likely to 

 favor the survival of our human ideals. 



(5) Finally, another consideration may be sug- 

 gested. Is it not generally admitted that the moral 

 ideal is one of self-realization through social 

 service, a self-realization which implies a willing- 

 ness to be immersed and even lost in the good 

 of the whole? And is this not also the deeper 

 aspect of Nature's strategy, that the individual 

 organism realizes itself in its interrelations, and 

 has to submit to being lost that the larger welfare 

 of the whole may be served? To sum up, our 

 general conclusion may be stated thus: "We see 

 that it is possible to interpret the ideals of ethical 

 progress through love and sociality, cooperation 

 and sacrifice not as mere Utopias contradicted 



