Vj- 



30 MARXISM AND DARWINISM. 



acter, an ever greater inequality among the individuals, 

 in their activity, education and condition. .;The higher 

 the advance of human culture, the greater the differ- 

 ence and gulf between the various classes existing. 

 Communism and the demands put up by the Socialists 

 in demanding an equality of conditions and activity 

 is synonymous with going back to the primitive stages 

 of barbarism."^ '^^ 



The English philosopher Herbert Spencer already 

 had a theory on social growth before Darwin, This 

 was the bourgeois theory of individualism, based upon 

 the struggle for existence. Later he brought this 

 theory into close relation with Darwinism. "In the 

 animal world," he said, "the old, weak and sick are 

 ever rooted out and only the strong and healthy sur- 

 vive. The struggle for existence serves therefore as 

 a purification of the race, protecting it from deterior- 

 'ation. This is the happy effect of this struggle, for 

 if this struggle should cease and each one were sure 

 of procuring its existence without any struggle what- 

 soever, the race would necessarily deteriorate. The 

 support given to the sick, weak and unfit causes a 

 general race degeneration. If sympathy, finding its 

 expressions in charity, goes beyond its reasonable 

 bounds, it misses its object ; instead of diminishing, it 

 increases the suffering for the new generations. The 

 good effect of the struggle for existence can best be 

 seen in wild animals. They are all strong and healthy 

 because they had to undergo thousands of dangers 

 wherein all those that were not qualified had to perish. 

 Among men and domestic animals sickness and weak- 

 ness are so general because the sick and weak are 

 preserved] Socialism, having as its aim to abolish the 

 struggle for existence in the human world, will neces- 



