2 Heredity and Social Progress 



We come, however, closer to the real facts when 

 we see that the denuding forces of nature act- 

 ing on the surface of the earth yearly carry off 

 a portion of the soil and deposit it in useless 

 places or beneath the sea. It may of course 

 be said that these denuding forces make soil as 

 well as destroy it ; but the destroying action is 

 in the present and the restoring process is in 

 the future. In each epoch, therefore, men face 

 diminishing natural returns, even though in 

 the end, new soils may be added by the up- 

 heaval of submerged regions. The ice of the 

 glacial epoch, for example, may have added 

 much to the fertility of the regions it trans- 

 formed; and yet the races of that age must 

 have felt that their lot was cast in unpleasant 

 lines. 



Since the natural surplus falls off, it cannot 

 be a source of social progress. Men must 

 meet new conditions under more disadvanta- 

 geous conditions, or they must create a social 

 surplus which more than balances the increas- 

 ing natural deficit But even with a social 

 surplus progress is not safe. The surplus is 

 always in perishable goods, which must be 



