758 Causes and Course of Organic Evolution 



tory ones. But he has had to carry out many millions of 

 costly experiments in chiefship rule, in hierarchic rule, in aris- 

 tocratic rule, in papal rule, in kingly rule, in imperial rule, 

 in presidential rule, so that he might at length discover by 

 costly process, never to be forgotten, that the rule of love — 

 of mutual regard and forbearance — can alone unite, guide, 

 evolve, and advance him to the highest plane of possible de- 

 velopment. 



Let us look somewhat more closely in the succeeding pages 

 at the main phases of the human competitive struggle. We 

 shall not attempt at present to complicate the matter by trac- 

 ing man's transition from the phytivorous habits, typical of 

 practically all primates to the mixed or the at times largely 

 carnivorous diet that man has long indulged in. We shall 

 rather accept the conditions known to us during written his- 

 tory as included within the past 3000-6000 years, and try 

 to sum up these in their present-day relation and possible 

 future application. 



In all evolving and increasingly complex societies, the con- 

 stant threatened danger to the general well-being and advance 

 of the community is in permitting to one or a few individuals 

 the exercise of exceptional and special power, or the securing 

 and holding of special natural supplies. xA.s a result of varia- 

 tion tendencies, individuals constantly appear who are more 

 richly provided with certain advantageous points than others. 

 If these are bred into the general stock, a general improvement 

 will result. If they are permitted to assume special power, 

 they attempt to grasp exclusive privileges, to live exclusive 

 lives, to use those who are less gifted or powerful as servants 

 at will, to inter-marry with each other, to absorb the best 

 at the expense of the whole, to build up an oligarchy instead 

 of a democracy. 



If such were always animated by a high proenvironmental 

 aim, they would exercise, and in some cases have exercised, 

 the highest good. But the selfish, the competitive, and the 

 analytic spirit and mode of life nearly always so largely creep 

 in to influence their actions that in the long run they become 



