232 NO STRUGGLE NO SELECTION 



bounds of a single family. The moral atmosphere and 

 upbringing of the children are the same, yet not 

 unfrequently one member of a family becomes, by 

 reason of his moral delinquencies, a social wreck, while 

 another, by virtue of his moral qualities, rises high 

 above his original condition in the social scale. 

 Nothing similar is found in the lower creation 

 among individuals of the same species. Each animal, 

 except in the rare cases of monstrosities and such 

 as are possessed of congenital malformations, realises 

 and fulfils the end of its being. Man alone is 

 an imperfect being. He is still in the process of 

 development advancing towards a yet remote ideal. 

 His moral being partakes of imperfection in a 

 greater degree than his physical,' though even 

 physically men differ individually more than the 

 lower animals. In one respect man is at apparent 

 disadvantage compared with them. As soon as the 

 protection of the parents is withdrawn from the 

 offspring, the individuals of the various species find 

 themselves possessed of the means of securing food ; 

 but man, as soon at least as he has emerged from the 

 rudimentary stages of existence into a civilised social 

 organisation, has to obtain his livelihood by finding 

 a place in the labour market. In a great complex 

 community like that of Great Britain, with its vast 

 diversity of trades, occupations, and employments, 

 commercial, manufacturing, mining, and agricultural, 

 and its unequal distribution of wealth, there cannot 

 fail to be a long series of gradations in the material 



