PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



IT may perhaps obviate some objections if I state 

 here in one sentence what my main thesis is, al- 

 though indeed I should have thought that it admitted 

 of no misunderstanding. In the essay entitled Dar- 

 winism and Politics, now reprinted with a few verbal 

 alterations, I seek to prove that T he theor y of Natural 

 Selecti on {in the form in which alone it can ProPe rh 

 be applied t 'i hmymi <tnriehi\ l ends no support to the 

 poli tical dogma of Laiss ^~ fnh'r The second and 

 third essays, which are now added to the original 

 essay, deal with the parenthetic clause, and attempt 

 to answer the question : In wJi af f nri t u 1 ' f 7TT i""TT /v ''" 

 the theor y of Natural Selectio n pmpcvJy he nppUed to 

 the' intellectual, moral and social development of man ? 



The second essay is a criticism of the last chapter 

 of Mr. A. R. Wallace's Darwinism, and has already 

 appeared In the Westminster Revieiv. The third has 

 been suggested by some "Anti-evolutionist" objec- 

 tions of Dr. Emil Reich. It is, I think, always con- 

 venient, and especially in a brief treatment of a 

 subject, to have definite objections to deal with and 

 to use a dialectic method instead of the formal 

 exposition more appropriate to an elaborate and 

 systematic treatise. 



A critic in the Academy complains that he cannot 

 grasp the exact object of my little book. Well, I do 



