The Theory of Evolution 29 



More concretely, power was to pass from the 

 hands of estabhshed aristocracies, then con- 

 trolling government, into the hands of the new 

 business classes rising to positions of influence 

 in the industrial world on the basis of the cap- 

 italistic manufacturing system, and it was nat- 

 urally these classes that inspired the theory. 

 Of course, as it turned out, the laisse::-faire 

 theory in its extreme form proved so unjust to 

 the masses that its harshness was tempered by 

 the enactment of factory acts and other regu- 

 lative legislation; yet, in spite of its announced 

 abandonment, its deadening influence still lies 

 heavy upon western civilization, bulwarking 

 the irresponsibility of wealth, fostering the 

 intense absorption in money-getting, and pre- 

 venting the proper consideration of wise meas- 

 ures designed to foster public interests through 

 a closer-knit social organization. 



The discovery of evolution, with its empha- 

 sis on competition and the survival of the 

 fittest, came directly out of the laissez-faire 

 conditions just sketched, and was related to the 

 endeavor to justify the prevailing struggle for 

 property. It would, of course, be ridiculous 

 to say that the scientists who worked out the 

 evolutionary hypothesis were consciously ani- 



