242 THE CONTEOL OF LIFE 



progress in mankind — probably in the case of phthisis 

 — but on the whole, as Professor Karl Pearson says, 

 " Consciously, or unconsciously, we have suspended the 

 racial purgation maintained in less developed com- 

 munities by natural selection." Without weapons save 

 his wits, without armour save his mutual aid, primitive 

 man was Nature's rebellious child, and in later days of 

 fine equipment he has continued his insurgence, as Sir 

 Ray Lankester puts it, hurling back against Nature's 

 sentence " You must die ! " the virile challenge : " Nay, 

 but I will live." 



In his magnificent lecture " The Kingdom of Man " 

 (1907), Sir Ray Lankester points out how Man transcends 

 Nature by insisting not only on surviving, but on sur- 

 viving along a line that pleases himself. " The standard 

 raised by the rebel man is not that of ' fitness ' to the 

 conditions proffered by extra-human nature, but is one 

 of an ideal comfort, prosperity, and conscious joy in 

 life — ^imposed by the will of man and involving a control 

 and in important respects a subversion of what were 

 Nature's methods of dealing with life before she had 

 produced her insurgent son." 



§ 8. The Dilemma of Civilisation 

 One of the constantly recurrent thoughts in the 

 mind of the biologist is the contrast between wild animals 

 and mankind. Among wild animals disease does not 

 grip, healthfulness is the rule, parasites are rarely trouble- 

 some, senility is unknown : among men disease is rife, 

 healthfulness has to be striven for, parasites are fre- 



