THE HISTORY OF INSTITUTIONS. 141 



" Survival of the fittest " is a very ambiguous 

 phrase ; and degeneration is often a condition 

 of survival, instead of progress. 



I have thus tried to show that the "concepts 

 of Darwinism " are perfectly applicable to 

 human society mutatis mutandis. The quali- 

 fication is essential. The uncritical use of 

 biological formulae only leads to bad results 

 in sociology and in practical politics. The 

 genuinely scientific historian may never men- 

 tion a single evolutionist catch-word, and yet 

 be contributing to our knowledge of Evolution 

 in its highest phase. The philosopher who 

 saw a dialectic movement in human history and 

 in the whole process of the universe was only 

 reading back into the lower stages of Evolution 

 what comes clearly to the surface in the highest, 

 where the blind conflict of nature passes over 

 into the conscious conflict of ideas. Progress 

 comes only by struggle, though the struggle 

 in its highest form may go on within the in- 

 dividual soul and may cause no death but the 

 death of partial truths that have become errors, 

 and of customs that have outlived their use. 



Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London. 



