DARWINISM AND POLITICS. 71 



Mr. Herbert Spencer l is afraid that women, 

 if admitted now to political life, might do mis- 

 chief by introducing the ethics of the family into 

 the State. " Under the ethics of the family the 

 greatest benefits must be given where the 

 merits are smallest, under the ethics of the State 

 the benefits must be proportioned to the merits." 

 Mr. Spencer seems to have more confidence 

 than most of us would in applying the strict 

 principle of geometrical proportion to distribu- 

 tive justice. Do people get benefits in propor- 

 tion to their merits in any society we have ever 

 seen or are likely to see ? And would those 

 persons whose merits arc greatest care most for 

 the greatest rewards ? Is it right to separate 

 the ethics of the family, in Mr. Spencer's favour- 

 ite antithetic fashion, from the ethics of the 

 State ? If something is right in a family, it is 

 difficult to see why it is therefore, without any 

 further reason, wrong in the State. If the 

 participation of women in politics means that, 

 as a good family educates all its members, so 

 must a good State, what better issue could there 

 be ? The family ideal of the State may be 

 .difficult of attainment, but, as an ideal, it is 

 1 Sociology, pp. 793, 794. 



