THE ARRIVAL OF THE FIT 



lead and dominate, as did the reptiles in Mesozoic 

 time, and the mammals in Tertiary time. Among 

 the mammals man is dominant because he is the 

 fittest. Nations break up or become extinct when 

 they are no longer fit, or equal to the exigencies of 

 the struggles of life. The Roman Empire would 

 still exist if it had been entirely fit. The causes of 

 its unfitness form a long and intricate problem. 

 Germany of to-day evidently looks upon herself as 

 the dominant nation, the one fittest to survive, 

 and she has committed herself to the desperate 

 struggle of justifying her self-estimate. She tram- 

 ples down weaker nations as we do the stubble of 

 the fields. She would plough and harrow the world 

 to plant her Prussian Kultur. This Kultur is a 

 mighty good product, but we outside of its pale 

 think that French Kultur, and English Kultur, and 

 American Kultur are good products also, and 

 equally fit to survive. We naturally object to being 

 ploughed under. That Russian Kultur has so far 

 proved itself a vastly inferior product cannot be 

 doubted, but the evolutionary processes will in time 

 bring a finer and higher Russia out of this vast wel- 

 tering and fermenting mass of humanity. In all 

 these things impersonal laws and forces are at work, 

 and the balance of power, if temporarily disturbed, 

 is bound, sooner or later, to be restored just as it is 

 in the inorganic realm. 



Evolution is creative, as Bergson contends. The 

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