DARWINISM AND POLITICS. 29 



have brought all State-action into disrepute 

 and make the arguments against it plausible. 

 There are, however, many cases where the 

 arguments against a partial State-action cease 

 to hold against the same action if made more 

 thoroughgoing : e.g. giving free education to 

 some children may be objected to as pauper- 

 ising ; free education as the right of all would 

 make none paupers. Yet even a partial State- 

 action may often be welcomed, as a recognition 

 that the State has duties towards its weaker 

 members, however inefficiently it may discharge 

 them. 



The capacity fo r thinking constitutes ma n's 

 f reedo m. _ It is by thinking alone that he can 

 rise above the position of nature's slave. This 

 does not amount to asserting the foolish dogma 

 of arbitrary " free will " as if every hu man 

 bein g were alw ay s equally capable of choo sing 

 betw een any given course and its opposite a 

 dogma which is not only foolish, but mischiev- 

 ous, for it leads to the neglect of the way in 

 which individual characters depend on their 

 environment, and to the consequent neglect ofi 

 the moral importance of political and social in- 

 stitutions. Ideas are themselves the outcome 



J 



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