I70 WHAT EVOLUTION IS 



benevolent acts, charities, and the Hke, 

 is intended to extend the Hf e of those 

 who otherwise might meet a speedy 

 end. Viewed from what might be 

 regarded as a biological level this 

 practice at first sight would seem to 

 demand condemnation. Why not fol- 

 low the example of the ant and destroy 

 all defectives ? Surely this would give 

 added resources to those who are most 

 able to use them. But a wholesome 

 human society could not exist under 

 such circumstances. Such an act as 

 the destruction of the weak would be 

 so subversive of the cooperative prin- 

 ciple, not to mention the higher vir- 

 tues, that a state endorsing such a 

 practice would disintegrate and fall.. 

 This principle is so clearly recognized 

 that civilized man has always striven, 

 and rightly striven, to succor the un- 

 fortunate. 



Yet if one takes the trouble to look 



