156 SUPER-ORGANIC EVOLUTION 



with them the theory of evolution. To give to the 

 struggle for life a preponderance over the other 

 factors of evolution is an error of conception and 

 interpretation that gives rise in sociology to per- 

 verse and inadmissible conclusions. 



The struggle for life only remains in force until 

 man appears, and is a factor that does not count 

 when civilisation begins. To claim the existence 

 of a law with resources inferior to those employed 

 by man to improve plants and animals, is to demon- 

 strate so complete an ignorance of the subject as 

 to provoke the derision of horticulturists and cattle- 

 breeders. What can we say, then, of those who 

 would apply the said law to man himself? It is 

 quite incomprehensible that economists and their 

 followers should mean that man makes use of a 

 means of selection, of the principle of the struggle 

 for life, which is an inferior method, solely to im- 

 prove his pigs and garden stuff. 



Organisms are perfected with all the greater 

 rapidity the greater their differentiation. Thus 

 man is more rapidly perfected, and humanity, as 

 a super-organic organism, is incomparably more 

 capable of perfection than all other beings, and all 

 the more readily that he is infinitely more differ- 

 entiated. Japan is an eloquent and convincing 

 example of this truth. 



Humanity is still the theatre of a mean and 



