258 THE LIMITATIONS OF SCIENCE 



and unobtrusive power of example is far more potent 

 for righteousness than a propaganda led by enthusiasts. 



Side by side with the doctrine that human sympathy 

 is the controlling factor of ethics, and this belief is 

 evidently the basis of eugenics, there has always per- 

 sisted the contrasted doctrine that the state of man is 

 one of warfare, a survival of the fit. This school 

 evidently relies on a law of natural evolution based 

 on the motive of egotism. It is thus my fourth class 

 of naturalism. 



Of all those who have advanced this motive of 

 egotism, none has done so as explicitly, or has made of 

 it so complete a philosophy as Hobbes. " In the first 

 place," he says, " I put forth, for a general inclination 

 of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of 

 power after power, that ceaseth only in death." This 

 is, I think, the direct influence of science unqualified 

 by character and piety. It is not my purpose to follow 

 this doctrine down to the present time but it can be 

 shown that Nietzsche, with his ideal of the Superman, 

 is the logical successor of Hobbes. Both the strength 

 and weakness of this form of philosophy have been 

 contrasted in a recent essay : * 



" Nietzsche regarded the self-assertive Superman 

 as a true reaction against the prevalent man of sym- 

 pathy, and as a cure for the disease of the age. That 



* Essay on Nietzsche. By Paul Elmer More. Shelburne Es- 

 says; Eighth Series. 



