374 SYMBIOGENESIS 



to values. That the principle of hereditary inequality of men 

 underlying many non-democratic political systems is inferior, 

 has its reason partly in profound biological facts, a matter to 

 which we shall presently recur. Already it will have been 

 evident to the modern reader that Huxley's second statement 

 is, to say the least, an exaggeration. The more consistently 

 men are treated as political equals, and their dignity as such 

 is respected, the greater the growth of sturdy and independent 

 character, of a virile nationhood with a sensitive national con- 

 science, the more there will arise of self-reliance, self-help and 

 of the highest forms of national co-operation. Such rule 

 favours, as Ruskin says, the production of "thoughtful, 

 sensitive, earnest, kind men, large in their views of life, and 

 full of various intellectual powers." What is more, it brings 

 to the front the most qualified amongst them maligned and 

 opposed though they generally are by cliques and inequality- 

 prophets. 



In the Koran it is laid down that "a ruler who appoints 

 any man to an office, when there is in his dominions another 

 man better qualified for it, sins against God and against the 

 State." But the danger of transgression of this rule is far 

 greater in a State where numerous feudal and other 

 prerogatives exist, and where national co-operation is by 

 coercion of one class by another rather than by voluntary 

 action, and by the mutual consent of dignified, though 

 diversified citizens. The practical test of a political system 

 may be said to consist in the way in which it brings men to 

 the front by merit rather than by favour or by mere cunning ; 

 by national service rather than by scheming, or by flattery of 

 rulers. 



It is not enough, by any means, that in a State the Witless 

 serve the cunning. What is needed is that the system of 

 mutual service in the community is of a (symbiogenetically 

 speaking) profitable character; i.e., that it benefits the race 

 and through it the world at large. The less there is of exploita- 

 tion and the more of voluntary mutual assistance and of equal 



