THE ECONOMIC FUNCTION OF VICE. 733 



out of every 1.000 fishes as useless for her purposes, and two out of 

 every five human beings. 



Many see in this relentless weeding out and destruction of her 

 inferior products a remarkable illustration of the wisdom of Nature's 

 methods. What would they think of a workman so bungling that 

 two fifths of the products of his handicraft were only fit for destruc- 

 tion ? 



The " struggle for existence " is a murderous scramble to get rid of 

 this vast surplusage. The " survival of the fittest " is the success of 

 the minority in demonstrating that the majority are superfluous. It is 

 the Kilkenny-cat episode multiplied by infinity. It will be remem- 

 bered that the whole trouble arose from their common belief that two 

 cats were a surplus of one for the Kilkenny environment. 



Darwin's theory recognizes in this super-fecundity of Nature her 

 most potent agency for improvement. He says, in effect, that the im- 

 possibility of providing subsistence for more than a fraction of the 

 multitudinous creation causes a mortal struggle, in which the weaker 

 and inferior are exterminated, and only the stronger and superior sur- 

 vive. These in turn have offspring like the leaves of the forest, which 

 in like turn are winnowed out by alien enemies, and ruthless reciprocal 

 extermination, the process going on continually with the sanguinary 

 regularity of the King of Dahomey's administration of the internal 

 economy of his realm. The benignity of this method of arranging the 

 order of Nature is not so apparent as a member of the Society for the 

 Prevention of Cruelty to Animals might desire. 



But our opinion of this law is not cared for. The main importance 

 attaches to the recognition of the fact that it is a law. Its application 

 to society is obvious : Since the propagation of human beings goes on 

 with entire recklessness as to the quality of the product and the means 

 of subsistence, some strong corrective is absolutely necessary to estab- 

 lish limits to population, and to secure the continued development of 

 the race. If every begotten child lived to the average age of forty, 

 in a very few years there would not be standing-room on the earth for 

 its people! Even with such limited propagators as the elephant, each 

 female of which produces but six offspring in her bearing period of 

 ninety years, we are told that, if the species had no parasitic or other 

 enemies, it would only be 740 years until elephants overran the 

 earth. Where, then, should we assign limits to the productiveness of 

 the 700,000,000 human females on the globe, each of whom is capable 

 of producing twenty children in her thirty years of bearing ? If, too, 

 every child had the same chance of life, without reference to its men- 

 tal and physical fitness to live, humanity would soon become a stag- 

 nant slough of vicious vitality. As there are only food and room for 

 the best, and as the development of the race demands it, only the best 

 survive, and continue the work of propagation. The rest are destroyed. 

 By " the best " is understood those having that harmony of mental and 



