308 THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN 



germ-plasm. Evolution is always slow, and, for that 

 very reason, sure. 



If these conclusions are correct, they have an im- 

 portant practical bearing. Struggle and effort are 

 essential to progress. Not inborn talent alone, but 

 the use which one makes of it, counts in evolution. 

 The effects of use and disuse are cumulative. The 

 hard-fought battle of past generations becomes an 

 easy victory in the present, just because of the 

 strength acquired and handed down from the past 

 struggle. Persistent variation toward evil is in time 

 weeded out by natural selection. And, while evil 

 remains in the world, we are to lay up stores of 

 strength for ourselves and our descendants by sturdily 

 fighting it. But the effects of right living through a 

 hundred generations are not overcome by the criminal 

 life of one or two. Evil surroundings weigh more in 

 producing criminals than heredity, and their children 

 are not irreclaimable. 



The struggles and victories of each one of us en- 

 courage the rest. There is, to borrow Mr. Huxley's 

 language, not only a survival of the fittest, but a fitting 

 of as many as possible to survive. And in the midst 

 of the hardest struggle there is the peace which comes 

 from the assurance of a glorious triumph. 



