582 INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



consequent on the increase of those unfit for the business of 

 life, or they will be overrun by some people who have not 

 pursued the foolish policy of fostering the worst at the ex 

 pense of the best. 



843. At the same time that it is biologically fatal, the 

 doctrine of the socialists is psychologically absurd. It 

 implies an impossible mental structure. 



A community which fulfils their ideal must be composed 

 of men having sympathies so strong that those who, by their 

 greater powers, achieve greater benefits, willingly surrender 

 the excess to others. The principle they must gladly carry 

 out, is that the labour they expend shall not bring to them its 

 full return ; but that from its return shall be habitually taken 

 such part as may make the condition of those who have not 

 worked so efficiently equal to their own condition. To have 

 superior abilities shall not be of any advantage in so far as 

 material results are concerned, but shall be a disadvantage, 

 in so far that it involves extra effort and waste of body or 

 brain without profit. The intensity of fellow feeling is to be 

 such as to cause life-long self-sacrifice. Such being the char 

 acter of the individual considered as benefactor, let us now 

 ask what is to be his character considered as beneficiary. 



Amid minor individual differences the general moral 

 nature must be regarded as the same in all. We may not 

 suppose that along with smaller intellectual and physical 

 powers there ordinarily goes emotional degradation. We 

 must suppose that the less able like the more able are ex 

 tremely sympathetic. What then is to be the mental atti 

 tude of the less able when perpetually receiving doles from 

 the more able? We are obliged to assume such feeling in 

 each as would prompt him to constant unpaid efforts on be 

 half of his fellows, and yet such lack of this feeling as would 

 constantly let his fellows rob themselves for his benefit. The 

 character of all is to be so noble that it causes continuous 

 sacrifice of self to others, and so ignoble that it continuously 



