48 Social Environment 



tual England, in sympathy with the unsocial 

 attitude of the factory lords, had developed a 

 philosophy which found no vital place for that 

 fundamental idealism and religion which ex- 

 presses the essence of society. In fact, Eng- 

 land's most popular sociologist after Spencer 

 calmly assigned to religion the function of 

 soothing the unfit into accepting their de- 

 struction. 



And yet, having gone so far, English evolu- 

 tionary thought was afraid to go to the logical 

 conclusion that its premises demanded. For 

 the logic of an evolution that has missed 

 the meaning of society leads from commer- 

 cial competition to militarism. Nietzsche, with 

 his faith in unfettered, unmoral competition, 

 stands at the logical conclusion of the argu- 

 ment But militarism was inconsistent with 

 the instincts of the British commercial classes, 

 who were perfectly satisfied with the results 

 of business exploitation. Having entered the 

 field first and extended their operations until 

 they had obtained a firm hold on the most 

 promising markets and investment opportuni- 

 ties, they desired all the ambitious of the world 

 to play the game for power in their way. They 

 had to fight Napoleon to prevent his establish- 



