BIOLOGY IN ITS WIDER ASPECTS 1319 



for existence; we see no escape from the conclusion that war is a 

 reversion to the crudest and most primitive form. 



If this be true, it behoves us to mingle fear with our pride, for 

 there are serious risks of slipping down the rungs of the steep ladder 

 of evolution. As Mr. Theodore Chambers points out in his admirable 

 lecture on "Eugenics and the War" (The Eugenics Review, January 

 1915): "It is in the actual environment of war, when excitement 

 reigns supreme, that the most unexpected deep-seated instincts 

 receive a stimulus. Lust, cruelty, and blood-thirstiness on the one 

 hand, sympathy, courage, and affection on the other, seem to be 

 intensified. War brings out into bold relief the intensest emotions of 

 good and evil. War tears off the decent garments of custom, and 

 leaves the soul naked." 



Among non-combatants, too, there is apt to be deterioration as 

 well as ennoblement. If war, in spite of being illumined by heroism 

 and endurance, in spite of being embellished by the achievements of 

 science, is in essence a return to the crudest form of the struggle 

 for existence, preoccupation with war is full of danger. W^hat sowings 

 of dragons' teeth there must be in every war, however just the cause ; 

 is it weak to be afraid lest in the crop that springs from them there 

 may be something less welcome than armed men ? The past lives on 

 in our present; the ape and the tiger die hard; there is always, as 

 Tennyson said, a dread risk of Reversion "dragging Evolution 

 in the mud". 



To sum up, man is fortunately not shut up to searching in Nature 

 for guidance ; he stands apart, with an instructiv^e history. Yet if he 

 looks carefully enough he will find Nature has another message 

 besides — "Each for himself, and elimination take the hindmost; 

 contention is the vital force; and careers are open to talons as well 

 as talents." There is another message — much harder to obey — of 

 subordinating individual gratification to welfare of the species. And 

 again, if Man does insist on following, as in war, the mode of the 

 struggle for existence in which rats can excel him, he must not 

 delude himself with the hope that it will necessarily result in the 

 survival of the fittest in any progressive sense. The most desirable 

 types are apt to get sifted out, leaving the race impoverished. 



Our argument is that from a biological point of view war must 

 ever be regarded with anxiety, since it makes for the impoverish- 

 ment of the race by sifting out a disproportionately large number of 

 those whom the race can least aifford to lose; and that, far from 

 being in full accordance with Nature's message to Man, it is a 

 reversion to the crudest and most primitive form of the struggle 

 for existence, and therefore to be regarded with peculiar fear. 



If war brings racial impoverishment, as it seems bound to do, 

 what counteractives are possible? (a) There may arise a more 

 marked disapproval of selfish forms of celibacy and a stronger 



