NATURAL SELECTION 



brutal struggle, which perhaps may have some 

 analogy with the struggle for existence in Nature ; 

 but it does not centre, however, as in evolution, in 

 an indefinite perfection, that crowns its work with 

 man. In the battle that is set on foot in human 

 society, the result is not improvement, it is deteri- 

 oration ; its aim is not happiness, it is money ; and 

 as this is a restrictive means of enjoyment, one 

 places man in the same situation as the wild beast ; 

 one makes him a selfish barbarian, or a coward and 

 hypocrite, since, like the beast, he has to scent his 

 prey, not knowing whether in future or to-morrow 

 he will find his rations. So that natural selection, 

 which in Nature is a means of improvement, in 

 reaching man, in society is converted into an energy 

 for ruining what he has done, which is an absurdity. 



As one sees, it is only a shallowness of conception 

 that has confounded what in Nature is a means of 

 selection, the spirit of which was surmised by the 

 sagacity of the great naturalist Charles Darwin, 

 who gave it the name of struggle for existence, a 

 law which they claim to apply improperly to social 

 phenomena. 



Psychic life guarantees physical life ; intelligence 

 assures animal life. 



Plants or animals have a very limited correspond- 

 ence with the external medium. The brute, by 

 instinct alone, limits its relation to the atmosphere 



