The 

 Human 

 Harvest 



The nobles 



and the 



peasantry 



[54] 



brush. We have no space for exceptions and 

 qualifications, and these again when under- 

 stood would only prove the rule. To 

 weigh statistics is impossible, for the statis- 

 tics we need have never been collected. The 

 evil effects of "military selection" and allied 

 causes have long been recognized by stu- 

 dents of social evolution ; but the ideas de- 

 rived from the application of Darwinism to 

 history have not penetrated our current lit- 

 erature. 



The survival of the fittest in the struggle 

 for existence is the primal cause of race- 

 progress and race-changes. But in the red 

 field of human history the natural process of 

 selection is often reversed. The survival of 

 theunfittest is the primal cause of the down- 

 fall of nations. Let us see in what ways this 

 cause has operated in the history of France. 



First, we may consider the relation of the 

 nobility to the peasantry, — the second to 

 the third estate. 



The feudal nobility of each nation of Eu- 

 rope was in the beginning made up of the 

 fair, the brave, and the strong. By their 

 courage and strength their men became the 



