INTRODUCTORY 201 



weakness. The policeman protects us from persecution. But 

 the methods of civilisation break down at many points, and, in 

 spite of it, there are many crises still, though their severity is 

 much reduced. By means of a greatcoat we soften the environ- 

 ment in cold weather. But this softer environment cannot be 

 always with us, and the full rigour of our fitful climate may 

 occasionally find the most careful man unshielded. Or, again, 

 a new disease may appear on the scene and nonplus the 

 doctors. 



The very fact that sickness can frequently be cured or pre- 

 vented from being fatal allows the continuance of habits that 

 eventually eliminate a great many persons. Alcohol is said to be 

 responsible for one death in every ten in England, and probably 

 this is under rather than over the mark. Whatever the exact 

 figure, drunkenness is a great means of elimination introduced by 

 civilisation. Among the lower animals such a vice would be 

 impossible, among other reasons, because the drunkards, exposed 

 to cold and to the attacks of enemies, would soon disappear from 

 the earth. And thus there would soon cease to be any indi- 

 viduals with a tendency to drunkenness. Civilisation prevents 

 the elimination of drunkards from being wholesale and complete, 

 and thus alcoholism is always with us, clpgged and half disarmed, 

 but still alive and venomous. Natural Selection is at work even 

 in the most civilised communities, but the individual is much 

 shielded from its direct incidence. Though not unscathed, he 

 often escapes the ultimate penalty ; the tribe or nation suffers for 

 the faults of the individual offender. Natural Selection retreats 

 some little distance, and the ground vacated is occupied by a 

 force unknown lower down in the animal world. Morality and Morality 

 religion appealing to high ideals which become part of the en- 



vironment that determines the course of evolution step in to their part 

 save the community. They point out to the individual that, J" n VO 

 though he may for a time be saved from the ultimate penalty due 

 to intemperance, yet the path of virtue is the only one to follow. 

 They exhort him to feed his children, when, thinking only of 

 his own comfort, he might be inclined to starve them. When- 

 ever it happens that the interest of the individual or what .the 



