CONCLUSION 341 



found a ready welcome, for it justified the present 

 state of affairs and furnished a refutation, based 

 upon scientific observation, of all the equalitarian and 

 humanitarian demands. 



To those who happened to feel, now and then, a little 

 uneasy at the thought of their own selfish lives, this 

 new theory furnished a scientific vindication of their 

 attitude: if the weak are crushed, they said, it is in 

 accordance with nature's law and for the benefit of 

 the race! 



The responsibility for such a distorted interpreta- 

 tion does not rest entirely with the public; the most 

 eminent naturalists were often at fault. Huxley, one 

 of the earliest adherents of Darwinism and one of the 

 cleverest exponents of the Darwinian theory, showed 

 himself very bold in his application of it to social 

 questions, especially in a lecture he delivered in 1888 

 on the struggle for life and its meaning for man. 



A gross misinterpretation of the Darwinian prin- 

 ciples has led certain writers to condemn charitable 

 organisations for the assistance of the sick, the infirm 

 or the old, to repudiate all social solidarity, and to 

 advocate a mode of life which, under the name of 

 scientific progress, would lower us to the level of 

 savage tribes. 



Hence a distressing dilemma: shall we obey the 

 noblest sentiments, the highest human aspirations 

 which none of us, unless blinded by selfish considera- 



