CHAPTER III 



NATIONALITY AND RACE 



Let us accept, for the moment, the German assmnp- 

 tion, although I have shown it to be erroneous, that 

 the struggle for existence is the law of evolution. I 

 have pointed out that a scientific law is a general- 

 ization from a particular set of data and that it is 

 extremely misleading to apply it to any other set of 

 data. I have now to ask if there be any congruity 

 between the facts of zoology and botany from which 

 the law of struggle for existence was derived and the 

 facts of national existence to which it is proposed to 

 apply it. The individuals of the animal and vege- 

 table kingdoms can be grouped as famihes, genera, 

 species, varieties and so forth. Human populations 

 are grouped into different nationalities. The com- 

 parison that seems most obvious is between nations 

 and the species of animals and plants. Nations, if 

 not actually distinct species, may be varieties of the 

 human race on the way to acquire specific distinc- 

 tion. TJiey may be species in the making, incipient 

 species. But there is no subtlety in the German 

 analogy. The struggle for existence is supposed to 

 have a universal apphcation, and the particular zoo- 



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