So DARWINISM AND POLITICS. 



work out their problems in their own manner. 

 That would surely be a healthier way in which 

 the higher might affect the lower races in the 

 future, educating them instead of enslaving, 

 demoralising or destroying them. 



As to the adjustment of population to subsist- 

 ence, Mr. H. Spencer has sufficient faith in the 

 beneficence of nature to believe this will come 

 about of itself through a biological law that 

 multiplication and individuation vary inversely, 

 so that, as the physical and intellectual culture 

 of the individual is more and more attended to, 

 the increase of the species will gradually dimin- 

 ish. This "law" is, however, as yet only a 

 mere speculation of Mr. Spencer's. There does 

 seem to be in the world a certain amount of 

 what we may call natural adaptation, which 

 leads the more cultured and the more settled 

 nations to be less prolific than those of the 

 same race or stock who are living in new coun- 

 tries with plenty of elbow-room. The English 

 race in Western America or in Australia does 

 seem to be more fruitful than in old England 

 or in New England. But the whole theoryJs_ 

 a very doubtful one. And a rational adapta- 

 tion of means to ends seems requisite to obtaic 



