52 DARWINISM AND POLITICS. 



beetles ; but would he have discovered the 

 origin of species and proved his discovery by 

 long years of continuous research? It is per- 

 fectly true that "social hindrances cannot im- 

 pede men of high ability from eminence," and 

 that "social advantages are incompetent to give 

 that status to a man of moderate ability." But 

 " social hindrances " may exhaust all the energy 

 of the ablest in the bare struggle for existence, 

 and may direct the energy of those who do 

 succeed into wrong and mischievous channels. 

 We cannot invent a social machine for manu- 

 facturing genius, but we might do something 

 to eliminate the waste and misapplication of 

 genius that goes on at present. Commercial 

 competition and the fight for social pre- 

 eminence offer terrible temptations to the 

 scientific worker, the writer of books, the 

 artist. 



Mr. Galton himself proposes what would 

 amount to a very considerable reorganisation 

 of society, and suggests some principles which 

 consistency and practical necessities might 

 oblige us to carry a little further : 



"The best form of civilisation in respect to the improve- 

 ment of the race, would be one in which society was not 



