. SOCIAL EVOLUTION 253 



and that it is only the vigorous and strong to whom 

 these various influences are generally harmless. HENCE 



THE NECESSITY THAT ALL WHO ARE BOliN SHOULD BE 

 PLACED IN SUCH A POSITION AS TO BE DEVELOPED 

 ONLY AS VIGOROUS AND HEALTHY ORGANISMS. 



We see the select few fortifying their position of ex- 

 clusiveness, with generally only one view in life, that 

 is, to maintain their position at the cost of the misery 

 of the masses. 1 Money, to make money, to get posi- 

 tion and surround themselves with luxury of every 

 description is their sole aim. 2 Intelligence is the 

 second or no consideration. To dress themselves in 

 the height of fashion, to loll in their carriages, and 

 to be gaped at by a wretched crowd, too often, satisfies 



is re-info reed." ("Louis Pasteur, His Life and Labours," 1885, 

 p. 249.) 



1 " A large proportion of the population in the prevailing state of 

 society take part in the rivalry of life only under conditions which 

 absolutely preclude them, whatever their natural merit or ability, 

 from any real chance therein. They come into the world to find 

 the best positions not only already filled, but practically occupied in 

 perpetuity." (" Social Evolution," Benjamin Kidd, 1895, p. 247.) 



3 " If we examine the motives of our daily life, and of the lives of 

 those with whom we come in contact, we shall have to recognise that 

 the first and principal thought in the minds of the vast majority of 

 us is how to hold our own therein. The influence of the rivalry 

 extends even to the innermost recesses of our private lives. In our 

 families, our homes, our pleasures, in the supreme moments of our 

 lives, how to obtain success or to avoid failure for ourselves, or for 

 those nearest to us, is a question of the first importance. Nearly all 

 the best ability which society produces finds employment in this 

 manner. It is no noisy struggle ; it is the silent determined striving 

 of vigorous men in earnest, who are trying their powers to the 

 utmost. It leaves its mark everywhere in the world around us. 

 Some of the most striking literature modern civilisation has produced 

 has taken the form of realistic pictures of phases of the struggle 

 which are always with us/' (Idem, p. 57.) 



