ON JUSTICE. 23 



ively well or ill sustained according to. their well-adapted activi- 

 ties or ill-adapted activities, it is displayed in the relations of 

 parts of each organism to one another. 



Every muscle, every viscus, every gland, receives blood in pro- 

 portion to function. If it does little it is ill-fed and dwindles ; if 

 it does much it is well-fed and grows. By this balancing of ex- 

 penditure in action and payment in nutriment, there is, at the 

 same time, a balancing of the relative powers of the parts of the 

 organism ; so that the organism as a whole is fitted to its exist- 

 ence by having the proportions of its parts continuously adjusted 

 to the requirements. And clearly this principle of self -adjustment 

 within each individual is parallel to that principle of self -adjust- 

 ment by which the species as a whole keeps itself fitted to its en- 

 vironment. For by the better nutrition and greater power of 

 propagation which come to members of the species that have fac- 

 ulties and consequent activities best adapted to the needs, joined 

 with the lower sustentation of self and offspring which accompany 

 less adapted faculties and activities, there is caused such special 

 growth of the species as most conduces to its survival in face of 

 surrounding conditions. 



This, then, is the law of sub-human justice, that each individual 

 shall receive the benefits and the evils of its own nature and its 

 consequent conduct. 



But sub-human justice is extremely imperfect, alike in general 

 and in detail. 



In general, it is imperfect in the sense that there exist multitu- 

 dinous species the sustentation of which depends on the wholesale 

 destruction of other species ; and this wholesale destruction im- 

 plies that the species serving as prey have the relations between 

 conduct and consequence so habitually broken that in but very few 

 individuals are they long maintained. It is true that in such cases 

 the premature loss of life suffered from enemies by nearly all mem- 

 bers of the species, must be considered as resulting from their na- 

 tures — their inability to contend with the destructive agencies they 

 are exposed to. But we may fitly recognize the truth that this vio- 

 lent ending of the immense majority of its lives, implies that the 

 species is one in which justice, as above conceived, is displayed in 

 but small measure. 



Sub-human justice is extremely imperfect in detail, in the sense 

 that the relation between conduct and consequence is in such an 

 immense proportion of cases broken by accidents — accidents of 

 kinds which fall indiscriminately upon inferior and superior in- 

 dividuals. There are the multitudinous deaths caused by inclem- 

 encies of weather, which, in the great majority of cases, the best 

 members of the species are liable to like the worst. There are 



