342 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



development, then the correlative of it must also be true, 

 that no one shall receive throughout life, that which is 

 not the result of his own nature and actions ; and this 

 will absolutely forbid such bequests to children or others 

 as will render them independent of all personal exertion, 

 enabling them to live idle lives on the labour of others, 

 and thus neutralize the operation of that beneficent law 

 which gives to each the results of " his own nature and 

 acts." To permit unlimited bequest is, in fact, doubly 

 injurious. It is a positive injury to the recipient when- 

 ever it enables him to live a life of idleness and pleasure — 

 to be a mere drone in the human hive. And it is also a 

 gross injustice to the rest of the community, for when such 

 parasites abound they become a burden on the industrious 

 who necessarily support these idlers by their labour. We 

 must further consider, that, so long as landlordism 

 continues, this idle and generally useless portion of the 

 community may increase almost indefinitely, because 

 savings can be made by all large landlords, on which 

 savings a larger and ever larger number of succeeding 

 generations may live without exertion, and thus render the 

 lot of the workers harder in proportion. 



It is strange that Mr. Spencer did not perceive that if 

 this law of the connection between individual actions and 

 their results is to be allowed free play, some social 

 arrangement must be made by which all may start in life 

 with an approach to equality of opportunities. While, 

 as now, some are brought up from childhood among low 

 and degrading surroundings — material, intellectual, and 

 moral — and have to struggle amid fierce competition for 

 the bare necessaries of life, it is absurd to maintain that 

 they receive the legitimate results of their own nature 

 and actions only ; both of which may be and often are far 

 superior to those of thousands whose early years are 

 surrounded by all the refinements of a higher social life, 

 and who find a place provided for them in which with 

 little effort on their part they can provide for all their 

 wants, their comforts, and their pleasures. Such a law as 

 Mr. Spencer has formulated becomes a mockery and a 

 delusion, unless each individual is given a fair start in life, 



