iv PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



not think I really can do anything more to help him 

 or any one else who feels a similar difficulty. He 

 also complains of my using the term "Darwinism" for 

 the doctrine of Evolution. I have used the term 

 " Darwinism " not, as he suggests, in imitation of 

 the German habit, but simply because I mean it. I 

 am dealing with the scientific th eory of Natural Sel ec- 

 tion , and not with all those metaphysical hyp otheses 

 which go under the name of Evolution. On this 

 matter a little has been said at the beginning of the 

 second essay. 



My friend, Mr. E. B. Poulton (to whom, more than 

 to any man or book I am indebted for my biological 

 premises, though of course I must not hold him 

 responsible for all the sociological and practical con- 

 clusions I have ventured to draw), has just called 

 my attention to a little work by Mr. W. Piatt Ball, 

 entitled, Are the Effects of Use and Disuse inherited? 

 (London, 1890). Mr. Ball argues with great force 

 against Mr. Herbert Spencer and against the La- 

 marckianism surviving in Darwin, that the theory of 

 "Use-inheritance" {i.e. the direct inheritance of the 

 effects of use and disuse in kind) is " unnecessary, 

 unproven and improbable : " and he draws the impor- 

 tant practical informro th^f fn r the improveme nt of 

 human societyrel ianmnn ns^jnherit ance is misp laced. 

 With all this I entirely agree. But when Mr. Ball 

 goes on to treat his arguments against private philan- 

 thropy as if they were also valid against systematic 

 action on the part of the State, I must dissent in the 

 strongest manner. Let me quote a few sentences from 

 the "Preface" and the "Conclusion" of Mr. Ball's 

 work : 



