238 NO STRUGGLE NO SELECTION 



standard of comfort from top to bottom. While I 

 admit that in every class there is a certain amount 

 of residuum so small, however, in respect of the mass 

 as to be practically inappreciable composed of failures 

 due to individual vices, I yet feel myself justified in 

 making the general affirmation that the whole body 

 of men of every class within the pale of the labour 

 market are survivors in the struggle for existence. 

 If this can be said to be the case, and it surely cannot 

 be denied, what meaning can there be in asserting 

 that mankind is subject to Natural Selection, and 

 that in the struggle of life it is the fittest who 

 survive ? Where all or almost all survive, are we 

 to be told that it is because all or almost all are the 

 fittest ? 



But it is asked : Do we not see the principle of 

 Natural Selection operating when in every department 

 of human activity we see those who are called success- 

 ful men outstripping their fellows and making their 

 way over their heads to fill the more prominent posts 

 in their businesses and professions, as well as in the 

 society in which they move ? I acknowledge that, 

 when the stronger and more self-assertive, the more 

 clever and intelligent, the braver and more self-reliant, 

 outstrip and leave behind them in the race for wealth 

 and honours the less happily endowed by nature, and 

 take their places in the foremost ranks of their 

 several spheres of life and action, their success may 

 be attributed to the operation of Natural Selection 

 if in that term we comprise, as we assuredly ought to 



