SCIENCE AS A RULE OF LIFE 15 



make up our minds whether we are to open our 

 ears and our purse to tales of misery, or are to join 

 ourselves with those whose rule of life it is to keep 

 that which they have for themselves. What is 

 true of each of us is none the less true of each 

 and every race even more true ; for each race 

 must make up its mind definitely as to which rule 

 it will follow. And at the moment there is still 

 doubt and indecision in this matter. 



" The moral problem that confronts Europe 

 to-day is : What sort of righteousness are we, 

 individually and collectively, to pursue ? Is the 

 new righteousness to be realised in a return to 

 the old brutality ? Shall the last values be as the 

 first ? Must ethical process conform to natural 

 process as exemplified by the life of any animal 

 that secures dominancy at the expense of the 

 weaker members of its kind ? >: Such are the 

 questions raised by a man of science occupying 

 the Presidential Chair of an important society and 

 speaking to that society as its President. 



As to the Christian ideals little need be said, 

 since we know very well what they are, and know 

 this most especially, that practically all of them 

 are in direct opposition to what we may call the 

 ideals of Nature, and exercise all their influence in 

 frustrating such laws as that of Natural Selection. 

 " Nature's Insurgent Son," as Sir Ray Lankester 

 calls him, 2 is at constant war with Nature, and 

 when we come to consider the matter carefully, 



1 R. R. Marett, Presidential Address to Folk-Lore Society, 

 1915. F oik-Lore, vol. xxvii., pp. 1-14, 



2 The Kingdom of Man. London : Constable & Co. 1907. 



