DARWINISM AND POLITICS. 



cost ? Strauss insists that it is as impossible 

 to abolish war, as to abolish thunder-storms. 

 To argue thus is to proceed like certain Indians 

 who are said to cut down the fruit tree when 

 they wish to pluck the fruit, or like Charles 

 Lamb's Chinaman, who burnt down his house 

 every time he wanted to enjoy the luxury of 

 roast pig. Are we to have so much more faith 

 in the blind passionsot" human nature than in 

 what can be done by conscious effort ? With 

 these blind passions we must reckon, as with 

 other forces in nature : but there is no reason 

 why we should accord to them any special 

 prestige, simply because they are natural. 

 They are to be used or to be defeated accord- 

 ing as our thinki ng decides. 



War is j^aturai^ only in the sen se of bei ng i^v, 

 the j ^fimitjy^ form of the str uggle between races t v^l. 

 and nations, not in the sense of something which ^-t*A 

 ought to be. It has indeed contributed greatly 

 to nation-making and to the development of 

 the primitive virtues of courage and fidelity. 

 Those tribes that were the bravest and the 

 most coherent have been the most successful in 

 the struggle for existence, and so these virtues 

 have come to receive special respect. But let 



