DARWINISM AND POLITICS. ir 



adopt one system or the other, or it will pass 

 through penury to starvation." 



Even those who are more full of hope lor 

 the future and more full of sympathy for human 

 beings, are apt to adopt a similar mode of 

 speaking. Thus, in his interesting little book, 

 The Story of Creadon, Mr. Edward Clodd, 

 though he looks forward to " a croal, where 

 might shall be subdued by right," yet speaks 

 .as follows : 



, -* 



" When the weeding process has done its utmost, there 

 remains a sharp struggle for life between the survivors. 

 Man's normal state is therefore one of conflict ; further 

 back than we can trace, it impelled the defenceless bipeds 

 from whom he sprang to unity, and the more so because of 

 their relative inferiority in physique to many other animals. 

 The range of that unity continued narrow long after he had 

 gained lordship over the brute ; outside the small combi- 

 nations for securing the primal needs of life the struggle 

 was ferocious, and, under one form or another, rages along 

 the line to this day. 'There is no discharge in that war.'~~7 

 "It may change its tactics and its weapons: among advanced 

 ^nations the military method may be more or less superseded 

 by the industrial, a man may be mercilessly starved instead 

 of being mercilessly slain ; but be it war of camp or mar- 

 ) kets, the ultimate appeal is to force of brain or muscle, and \ 

 the hardiest or craftiest win. In some respects the struggle J 

 is waged more fiercely than in olden times, while it is un- 

 iredeemed by any element of chivalry." (pp. 21 r, 212.) 



