EVOLUTION 247 



own point of view. A social will that does not justify 

 itself in particular benefits to the individuals who constitute 

 the community must delete itself ; and an individual end 

 which is anti-social tends to destroy the individual himself. 

 Indeed, I am inclined to think that each of these constitutes 

 the best criterion for the other ; that is to say, that the 

 particular purpose of the individual can be best judged in 

 the light of its significance for society, and that a public 

 end can be best judged by its value for the particular 

 citizens. In any case, it is not true, as is too frequently 

 supposed, that there are public ends to be achieved by 

 public machinery, and private ends that must be left to the 

 individual acting by himself, or in voluntary combination 

 with his fellows. On the contrary it might be held that 

 there are no social ends as such^and no personal ends as such. 

 Let us take the first of these statements. It can be 

 shown by analysis of social ends and activities that the 

 individual is both their terminus a quo and their terminus 

 ad quern, and that social or public agencies are in reality 

 nothing but public means of satisfying private desires. If 

 the state maintains an army or navy or a judicial system, 

 or runs the penny post ; if a municipality manufactures 

 gas, cleans the streets or runs the tramways, it is surely 

 only because this is the most effective way of securing 

 safety, justice, comfort and convenience for the individual 

 citizens. Nor does the public nature of the means defeat 

 in any way the privacy of the ends secured. My corre- 

 spondence with my neighbours is as much my own as if 

 I carried my letters myself ; and I go whither I wish on 

 my own business even although I may employ the muni- 

 cipal tramway cars. In most cases I am free to employ or 

 not to employ the public machinery as I think fit ; in some 



