THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



If he had lived to see the consequences of the idea of 

 the superman emerging from this struggle for exist- 

 ence as logically derived by Nietzsche and carried out 

 practically by the Germans, he would have hesitated 

 to publish his doctrine until forced to do so by the 

 certainty of its proof. Nor did he ever apply the prac- 

 tice of his hypothesis to the conduct of his personal 

 life ; he may have worked to prove that the law of na- 

 ture was ruthless suppression of the weak, but his 

 life singularly exemplified the virtues of love, faith, 

 and humility; he was known for his sympathy for, 

 and protection of, the unfortunate, both animals and 

 men. ^ 



Although sustained power of abstract reasoning 

 and imagination were essential to the development 

 of his hypothesis, Darwin showed a lack of interest in 

 philosophy and was, by his own repeated statement, 

 absolutely unable to follow an abstract argument. He 

 was apparently limited in this respect temperament- 

 all)% and his continued ill-health greatly intensified 

 this predisposition. His letters are full of confessions 

 that he could not follow a metaphysical argument; 

 that the attempt to do so invariably distressed his 

 head and wearied him. And nothing is more sur- 

 prising than his naive admiration of Spencer, Hux- 

 ley, Fiske, and others who were able to understand 

 such reasoning. As we have seen, he adopts Spencer's 

 philosophy and bases his hypothesis on the dictum 

 of the survival of the fittest, and yet he confesses 



C 198 3 



