ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 37 



made by men themselves. Men do not choose the best men but 

 the best arts, and indirectly choose the men as best because they 

 represent the best arts. So, institutions compete with institutions, 

 and the best are chosen in the average. So, languages and methods 

 of expressing thought compete with languages and methods of ex- 

 pressing thought, and in the average the best are chosen. In like 

 manner opinions compete with opinions, and in the grand average 

 the best and the true are chosen. Now, arts, institutions, languages, 

 and opinions are human inventions, and in every department of 

 human activity, as thus represented, inventions compete with in- 

 ventions, and as in the grand average the fittest are chosen, so those 

 who represent the best, the fittest, achieve success as compared with 

 others who represent inventions of less worth. In this field there 

 is legitimate competition, and it is by this competition that man 

 progresses in civilization; but it is the objective invention or activ- 

 ity that survives, not the subject man. Now that class of sociolo- 

 gists who appeal to the established facts of science relating to com- 

 petition, and use the laws of competition as they are exhibited in 

 the lower animals, as if they properly applied to man, use them for 

 destructive purposes, to destroy institutions, and they use them 

 illegitimately, for human progress is not made by competing for 

 existence, or by directly competing for welfare, but only by in- 

 directly competing for welfare through the direct competition of 

 arts, institutions, languages, and opinions ; and in order that this 

 indirect competition may be efficient all such competition must be 

 in conformity with the principles of justice. Therefore, institutions 

 designed to establish justice among mankind cannot properly be 

 judged by the canons derived from the laws of competition, but 

 only by the canons derived from the principles of justice, for the 

 efficiency of competition itself in human progress depends primarily 

 on pre-established justice. 



The destructionists who thus illegitimately use the doctrines of 

 evolution in their warfare against all human institutions to a large 

 extent deny the efficiency of altruistic motives. They do not clearly 

 see that wise egoism is wise altruism, because they do not clearly 

 understand the interdependence of mankind; and in denying the 

 extent and efficiency of altruism they neglect the best side of human 

 history. Man inherited altruism from the beast. The she bear 

 loves her cubs, the lioness her whelps, and the eagless her eaglets, 

 and beast, bird, and insect alike exhibit altruistic motives. Among 



