212 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v 



likely to be devised, no fiddle-faddling with the 

 distribution of wealth, will deliver society from 

 the tendency to be destroyed by the reproduction 

 within itself, in its intensest form, of that struggle 

 for existence the limitation of which is the object 

 of society. And however shocking to the moral 

 sense this eternal competition of man against man 

 and of nation against nation may be; however 

 revolting may be the accumulation of misery at 

 the negative pole of society, in contrast with that 

 of monstrous wealth at the positive pole ; 1 this 

 state of things must abide, and grow continually 

 worse, so long as Istar holds her way unchecked. 

 It is the true riddle of the Sphinx; and every 

 nation which does not solve it will sooner or later 

 be devoured by the monster itself has generated. 



The practical and pressing question for us, just 

 now, seems to me to be how to gain time. 

 " Time brings counsel," as the Teutonic proverb 

 has it ; and wiser folk among our posterity may 

 see their way out of that which at present looks 

 like an impasse. 



It would be folly to entertain any ill-feeling 

 towards those neighbours and rivals who, like 

 ourselves, are slaves of Istar ; but, if somebody is 

 to be starved, the modern world has no Oracle of 

 Delphi to which the nations can appeal for an 

 indication of the victim. It is open to us to try 



1 [It is hard to say whether the increase of the unemployed 

 poor, or that of the unemployed rich, is the greater social 

 evil. 1894.] 



