NATURAL SELECTION 161 



There is another essential difference that brings 

 into relief the great antagonism this law implies 

 when applied to sociology. In animals and plants 

 it is a factor in their improvement, and therefore 

 has its justification, and the end of its operation is 

 to assist the appearance of man upon the earth. 



In society, as it is organised, it constitutes the 

 only, or at least the primordial, end of life, the 

 accumulation of wealth. This is the key that opens 

 all doors, and with that view all intelligences are 

 awakened, all incentives are aroused. Thus, 

 according to the law we are discussing, a selection 

 will be made ; but when applied to the amassing 

 of wealth, perfection will only be attained by those 

 best adapted to that end. That this neither is nor 

 should be the final aim of man upon the earth, all 

 the world knows ; but of all those very persons 

 who have succeeded in amassing capital and who 

 live and die victims to their efforts, being as 

 unfortunate as the rest, and leaving an unlucky 

 offspring Maudsley says that the sons of men 

 who have made great fortunes by dint of sacrifices 

 and fatigue are degenerate, the miserable issue of 

 those who are now called heirs of weariness, 

 afflicted with neurosis, a disease in direct conflict 

 with the selection that the struggle for existence 

 implies. 



On the contrary, the law of evolution teaches us 



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