DARWINISM AND POLITICS. 



sanctity w hich makes it a very form idable 

 oppone nt to have to reckon with in nny pnlii-iral 

 or e thical controversy . It is easy to see how 

 the evolutionary^ watch-word can be applied. 

 In Malthus the idea of struggle for existence 

 was a very u ncomfortable o ne ; but, when it 

 comes back to economics after passing through 

 biology, it makes a ve ry comfortable doctr ine 

 indeed for all those who are quite satisfied with 



thi ngs as they ar e. The support of scientific 

 opinion can be plausibly claimed for the defen.c e 

 o f_the inequalities in the social organ ism ; these 

 inequalities, it can be urged, are only part of 

 what exist inevitably throughout the physical 

 world. The creed of Liberty. Equality, Fra- 

 terni ty can be discarded as a mpt-a, physical 

 fiction of the unscientific eighteenth cen tury. 

 The asp irations of socialism ca n b p p nf asidp as 

 the foolish denial of the pvpHasi-tng eronnm ir 

 competition which is sanctioned by nature as 

 only one phase of the general struggle for 

 existence. 



Let us suppose, for a moment, that our bio- 

 logical politicians are correct in their view of 

 social evolution : they ought, at least, to cease 

 talking to us of " the beneficent working of the 



