THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 249 



and neither they nor their families suffer when the 

 evil day comes. But this is not the case with too 

 large a proportion of the class. Too many are the 

 victims of intemperance, and spend their earnings as 

 if their good times were assured against any inter- 

 mission. But there are many who have not even the 

 wretched excuse of intemperance for dissipating their 

 wages, who do not save in view of the day which may 

 find them out of work. No reasonable man would 

 grudge the working man his enjoyment of what good 

 things he can lawfully use that is, what his means 

 permit. But to ascertain what his means permit he 

 must look not merely to the passing hour, but to the 

 future with its certainty of change and its responsi- 

 bilities. It is one of his first duties as a citizen to 

 ward off from his family, when it lies in his power to 

 do so, the possibility of famine. Notwithstanding all 

 the evils and anomalies of our social and industrial 

 life, this would be a happy and desirable country for 

 its working men if they would only exercise a reason- 

 able thrift and keep themselves sober. 



When we turn to consider the commercial rivalry 

 of the different nations, we find a general consensus of 

 opinion that in this field of human action is illustrated 

 the great law of Natural Selection, or the survival of 

 the fittest, in that internecine struggle for existence, in 

 which, according to the orthodox Darwinian doctrine, 

 all life is of necessity involved. 



But a wider outlook will correct this conventional 

 way of thinking in regard to industry and commerce. 



