224 DARWINISM AND HUMAN LIFE 



In illustration, let us briefly consider the bio- 

 logical aspect of prolonged wars. In his " Human 

 Harvest " President Jordan tells of a man more 

 strenuous than wise, who possessed a stud of 

 horses, which he would make more strong and fleet. 

 " So he rode them swiftly with all his might, 

 day and night, always on the course, always 

 pushed to the utmost, leaving only the dull and 

 sluggish to remain in the stalls. For it was his 

 dream to fill these horses with the spirit of action, 

 with the glory of swift motion, that this glory 

 might be carried on and on to the last generation 

 of horses. There were some who could not keep 

 the pace, and to these, and these alone, he assigned 

 the burden of bearing colts. And the feeble and 

 broken, the dull of wit, the coarse of limb, became 

 each year the mothers of the colts. . . . For a 

 time whip and spur made good the lack of native 

 movement . . . ; but the current of life ran steadily 

 downward. Each generation yielded weaker colts, 

 rougher, duller, clumsier colts, and no amount of 

 training or lash or spur made any permanent 

 difference for the better. The horse-harvest was 

 bad. Thoroughbred and race-horse gave place 

 to common beasts, for in the removal of the noble 

 the ignoble always finds its opportunity. It is 

 always the horse that remains which determines 

 the future of the stud. In like fashion, from the 

 man who is left flows the current of human history." 



Let us observe how Jordan works out his thesis 

 in relation to man. " In the conquests of Rome, 

 Vir, the real man, went forth to battle and to the 

 work of foreign invasion ; Homo, the human being, 

 remained in the farm and the workshop and begat 

 the new generation/' Prof. Seeck, one of the 



