158 SUPER-ORGANIC EVOLUTION 



and to a small portion of time and space ; the 

 animal consumes for itself, but produces nothing 

 for itself in return, the moment of necessity 

 arriving when its resources will be exhausted. 

 In man the case is very different, since with 

 intelligence his action extends considerably over 

 time and space. Besides, the law of correspond- 

 ence of the external to the internal, much more 

 perfect in man than in animals, makes him the 

 lord of Nature ; he disposes of his natural forces, 

 and constructs machines with which he multiplies 

 his power indefinitely, and natural science offers 

 him energies such as radio-activity. To sum up : 

 man consumes as a unit, but has the productive 

 power of a thousand. How can we thus think of the 

 struggle for life ? Can we compare the unconscious 

 capital which the brute has at his disposal in 

 natural selection, with the boundless capital 

 natural forces placed at the service of man through 

 his intelligence ? Would not inquiry have been 

 made of Malthus or his followers, now that his 

 famous law has been the point of support of the 

 pseudo-economists, in order to justify the un- 

 justifiable? If sustenance increases in arithmetical, 

 and animals in geometrical progression, in what 

 progression does the intelligence increase, and the 

 resources it creates ? What is the meaning of 

 intelligence? When will men understand the 



