Social Evolution 323 



enunciates as truths statements which contain a 

 truth, but which also contain a falsehood. What 

 he here says is undoubtedly true of the world, taken 

 as a whole. It is in all probability entirely false of 

 the highest sections of society. At any rate, there 

 are numerous instances where the law he states does 

 not work; and of course a single instance oversets 

 a sweeping declaration of such a kind. 



There can be but little quarrel with what Mr. 

 Kidd says as to the record of the world being a rec- 

 ord of ceaseless progress on the one hand, and cease- 

 less stress and competition on the other; although 

 even here his statement is too broad, and his terms 

 are used carelessly. When he speaks of progress 

 being ceaseless, he evidently means by progress sim- 

 ply change, so that as he uses the word it must be 

 understood to mean progress backward as well as 

 forward. As a matter of fact, in many forms of 

 life and for long ages there is absolutely no progress 

 whatever, and no change, the forms remaining prac- 

 tically stationary. 



Mr. Kidd further points out that the first neces- 

 sity for every successful form engaged in this strug- 

 gle is the capacity for reproduction beyond the lim- 

 its for which the conditions of life comfortably pro- 

 vide, so that competition and selection must not only 

 always accompany progress, but must prevail in 

 every form of life which is not actually retrograd- 

 ing. As already said, he accepts without reserva- 

 tion the proposition that if all the individuals of 

 every generation in any species were allowed to 



