196 COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD PART HI 



to the intelligent stock as a stock over non-intelligent 

 or less intelligent competitors of an adjacent stock. 

 This is a new point. It is another phase of Natural 

 Selection C. We make a separate heading for it because 

 it brings out most clearly the presence of intelligence 

 as a new evolutionary force, or, otherwise regarded, as 

 a new and advantageous quality. Some will describe 

 the appearance of a new force or quality as being due 

 to Natural Selection A ; we have explained above why 

 we dislike speaking of new qualities as being " due to " 

 natural selection. 



There is yet a further sense in which natural selec- 

 tion continues to work. We claim that even intelligent 

 animals are affected by natural selection (A ?) at least 

 in regard to their physique. It is not in animals but 

 only in man that we are told of an " arrest of the body." 

 The old sort of struggle continues in the higher brutes, 

 and the old lines of progress are prolonged. In one 

 respect therefore the old and the new forces, the slow 

 and the swift are added to each other ; in another 

 respect if we look to the growth of intelligence alone 

 the two forces must be said to blend. And the 

 blending is in part an interference or a conflict. To a 

 certain extent, intelligence is so thoroughly novel as to 

 hamper its older comrade. If birds build nests not by 

 instinct but by teaching, stupid birds which would other- 

 wise have died off will learn the essentials of life (like 

 stupid men), and survive I So far then, natural selection 

 is thwarted. But only so far. It is not until Intelli- 

 gence has become Reason that it proves strong enough 

 to suspend natural selection. Among the animals, 

 struggle still lasts ; and the stupid bird will die out or 

 " tend" to die out in times of difficulty ; though it will 

 not vanish so promptly as it would have done if there 



