THE DOCTRINE OF NATURAL SELECTION. 25 



not immediately connected with the science in which he is so great an 

 authority. The most important, though not the longest, essay in the 

 volume is that on " Selection in the Human Race," in which he arrives 

 at some results which differ considerably from those of previous 

 writers. In a section on " Selection in Human Societies or Nations," 

 we find a somewhat novel generalization as to the progress and decay 

 of nations. Beginning with small, independent states, we see a 

 gradual fusion of these into larger and larger nations, sometimes vol- 

 untary, sometimes by conquest, but the fusion always goes on, and 

 tends to become more and more complete, till we have enormous ag- 

 gregations of people under one government, in which local institutions 

 gradually disappear, and result in an almost complete political and 

 social uniformity. Then commences decay ; for the individual is so 

 small a unit, and so powerless to influence the government, that the 

 mass of men resign themselves to passive obedience. There is then no 

 longer any force to resist internal or external enemies, and by means 

 of one or the other the " vast fabric " is dismembered, or falls in ruins. 

 The Roman Empire and the Spanish possessions in America are ex- 

 amples of this process in the past ; the Russian Empire and our Indian 

 possessions will inevitably follow the same order of events in a not 

 very distant future. 



% Although M. de Candolle is a firm believer in Natural Selection, he 

 takes great pains to show how very irregular and uncertain it is in its 

 effects. The constant struggles and wars among savages, for example, 

 might be supposed to lead to so rigid a selection that all would be 

 nearly equally strong and powerful ; and the fact that some savages 

 are so weak and incapable as they are shows, he thinks, that the action 

 of natural selection has been checked by various incidental causes. 

 He omits to notice, however, that the struggle between man and the 

 lower animals was at first the severest, and probably had a consider- 

 able influence in determining race-characters. It may be something 

 more than accidental coincidence that the most powerful of all savages 

 the negroes inhabit a country where dangerous wild beasts most 

 abound ; while the weakest of all the Australians do not come into 

 contact with a single wild animal of which they need be afraid. 



Selection among barbarous nations will often favor cunning, lying, 

 and baseness ; vice will gain the advantage, and nothing good will be 

 selected but physical beauty. Civilization is defined by the prepon- 

 derance of three facts the restriction of the use of force to legitimate 

 defence and the repression of illegitimate violence, speciality of pro- 

 fessions and of functions, and individual liberty of opinion and action 

 under the general restriction of not injuring others. By the applica- 

 tion of the above tests we can determine the comparative civilization 

 of nations ; but too much civilization is often a great danger, for it 

 inevitably leads to such a softening of manners, such a hatred of 

 bloodshed, cruelty, and injustice, as to expose a nation to conquest by 



