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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



lowed to exercise arbitrary and irre- 

 sponsible power in the etFort to advance 

 their claims. Power, in the last resort, 

 belongs to the community as a whole, 

 and no man or group of men should be 

 encouraged for one moment to think 

 that he or they can he allowed to usurp 

 the authority of society. There is no 

 "higgling" if one of the parties to the 

 bargain takes a club and forces the other 

 to accept his price. Society should be 

 the sole club-wielder, and, while slow to 

 wield it in general, should be quick to 

 w-ield it upon those who would take the 

 club out of its hands. It is bad for the 

 individual not to insist upon his rights; 

 but for society not to insist on its rights 

 is absolutely fatal. 



In the popular mind the theory of 

 natural selection is largely identified 

 with the doctrine of evolution, and 

 many are impressed by the work of 

 Darwin who have but a scant knowl- 

 edge or appreciation of that of Spencer. 

 Darwin was buried in Westminster 

 Abbey, but whether an equal honor 

 awaits the author of the Synthetic Phi- 

 losophy is perhaps doubtful. The the- 

 ory of natural selection, however, far 

 from being the whole of evolution, is 

 only a subordinate aspect of it. At the 

 same time, if we would gather the prac- 

 tical lessons of the evolution philosophy, 

 the views elaborated by Darwin claim 

 our serious attention. We have learned 

 from him how Nature is continually 

 selecting those who are to carry on the 

 great chain of life. Not every one who 

 is called is chosen, which, interpreted 

 by Darwin, means that not every one 

 who is called into life is chosen to carry 

 on life. Far from this, the vast mul- 

 titude of living things meet untimely 

 death, and go to aid, either actively or 

 passively actively if they minister to 

 their sustentation, passively if by their 

 absence they lessen the demand on food 

 supplies the lives of the survivors. 

 There is perhaps no greater or more 

 serious problem confronting society to- 

 day than this: how to pay just heed to 



the above law without injury to our own 

 moral sensibilities and particularly to 

 our sense of the sacredness of life. It 

 is impossible to doubt that the law on 

 which the well-being of every other 

 animal species depends must be vindi- 

 cated in the case of the human species 

 also ; and yet the very fact that we are 

 sensible of the problem before us shows 

 that we are called to solve it in a man- 

 ner suitable to our higher intellectual 

 and moral development. As every one 

 is aware, there is at present an impor- 

 tant controversy in progress between 

 Mr. Spencer on the one hand and Prof. 

 Weismann on the other, upon the ques- 

 tion as to whether modifications ac- 

 quired by an organism during the course 

 of its individual existence are transmis- 

 sible by inheritance. The discussion is 

 not one into which we can enter ; and 

 we only refer to it for the purpose of 

 remarking that, though it seems to 

 touch a vital point in the doctrine of 

 evolution, the great fact of evolution re- 

 mains unassailable. The practical dif- 

 ference between one view and the other 

 is that, if Mr. Spencer is right, a larger 

 scope seems to be opened for educative 

 effort, and more encouragement for such 

 effort is afforded ; whereas, if Prof. 

 Weismann is right, the one all-important 

 principle to keep in view, if we would 

 preserve society from degeneration, is 

 that of selection of stocks, seeing that 

 an inferior individual, however much 

 we may improve him personally by edu- 

 cation, must, if he have progeny, trans- 

 mit, not the qualities imparted by edu- 

 cation, but those bestowed upon him by 

 Nature at birth. 



The doctrine of evolution thus shows 

 us the necessity for struggle in the set- 

 tlement of the bases of society, and it 

 indicates, in a general way, how that 

 struggle should be carried on, namely, 

 by a firm and decent assertion of indi- 

 vidual rights, and the acceptance by 

 each and all from time to time of such 

 compromises as circumstances prescribe. 

 Should there be, in any given society, 



