84: . Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



men always to do the same, and then social existence would 

 become impossible ; and thus the principle of lying, if carried 

 to its full length, destroys itself. Hence reason, he concludes, 

 can never persuade us to lie. We have in this the germ and 

 more than the germ of the Kantian doctrine, " Let the 

 maxim of your conduct be that which can be made into law 

 universal." A further consequence naturally flows from it — 

 viz., that, in as far as any nation, any theory, or any institu- 

 tion contains elements of moral baseness, in so far also does it 

 contain elements of weakness ; that whatever survives in the 

 world survives in virtue of that in it which is true and 

 valuable. This is the kernel of the doctrine that has been 

 preached in our day with much energy of conviction by 

 Thomas Carlyle, and has vividly impressed the English-speak- 

 ing world. Eeferring to the rise of Mahometanism, for 

 example, he says, " I will allow a thing to struggle for itself 

 in this world, with any sword or tongue or implement it has, 

 or can lay hold of. We will let it preach, and pamphleteer, 

 and fight, and to the uttermost bestir itself, and do, beak and 

 claws, whatsoever is in it, very sure that it will, in the long- 

 run, conquer nothing which does not deserve to be conquered." 

 If the real tendency of things were not good this could not be 

 so. As it is, "All that is right," he contends, "includes itself in 

 this, of co-operating with the real tendency of the world." If,, 

 however, we can recognise the truth that this view of life 

 contains, we must also recognise that the intelligence which 

 guides the universe is working out by degrees the realisation 

 of an ideal that is also our own. 



Carlyle's doctrine is plainly a doctrine of the survival of 

 the fittest among theories, religions, and institutions ; and 

 here again we find speculation on first principles anticipating 

 the conclusions of science. It differs from Mr. Darwin's 

 survival of the fittest, however, in this : that in it the " fittest " 

 has the definite meaning of the best and the worthiest. With 

 reference to Mr. Darwin's formula, it has frequently been 

 pointed out that the survival of the fittest can mean only the 

 survival of what is best adapted to survive. Like the Hegelian 

 theory, however, it appears to more advantage in action than 

 its formulas. When we see how it is applied we can perceive 

 in it another meaning. Mr. Darwin himself finds in it a 

 principle which must necessarily lead to the development of 

 the social instincts, the unselfish side of our nature. It seems 

 clear to him, too, both that the struggle for existence cannot 

 fail to develope intellect in the race, and also that the develop- 

 ment of intellect must secure the development of morality 

 pari passu with it. We arrive thus by another a priori road 

 at the same conclusion — that the real tendency of things can- 

 not be otherwise than good. 



