DARWINISM AND POLITICS. 55 



like natural organisms, orow and are not made, 

 we have certainly to learn that every evil 

 cannot be remedied in a day. But from the 

 other, at least equally important fact, that 

 human societies do not merely grow but are 

 consciously altered by human effort, we have 

 also to learn that every evil is not to be 

 accepted as inevitable. The spread of ideas 

 regarding a better organisation of society is 

 itself a factor in the attainment of that better 

 organisation not, of course, that we can make 

 out a complete plan, like an architect, and then 

 get it put into practice. Time and experience 

 alone can surest the details. But the teach- 

 ing of evolutionary science, rightly understood, 

 gives us no excuse for putting aside all schemes 

 of social reorganisation as merely foolish and 

 dreamy idealism. A fair study of social evolu- 

 tion will at least indicate the direction in which 

 we have to move. 



7. THE LA IV OF SOCIAL PROGRESS. 



Hitherto in my argument I have accepted 

 the formulae of " struggle for existence " and 

 " natural selection " as quite sufficient to ex- 



