76 DARWINISM AND POLITICS. 



(3) I began by referring to Malthus, and 

 with Malthus I must end. Socialists have 

 usually brushed aside the Malthusian precepts 

 and somewhat too lightly neglected the Mal- 

 thusian arguments. To some extent this has 

 been due to a correct instinct. The "pru- 

 dence " of the old school of political economy 

 would mean that the most careful and intelli- 

 gent part of the population should leave the 

 continuance of the race mainly to the least 

 careful and the least intelligent portion thus 

 brino-ino- about a survival of the unfittest. And 

 so the theory of natural selection, which was 

 suggested to Darwin by Malthus's theory of 

 population, has come to be used as a refutation 

 of Malthus's practical suggestions. 1 Socialist 

 views on the question have not always had so 

 scientific a basis, but have sometimes rested on 

 nothing much better than the popular super- 

 stition that where God sends mouths he sends 

 the food to feed them, though this may be dis- 

 guised in a non-theological form, such as " the 

 earth is capable of producing abundance of 

 food for all its inhabitants." Now what does 

 this mean ? That the earth at present may be 



1 Cp. Galton's Hereditary Genius, p. 356. 



