210 The Bible of Nature 



Huxley's Thesis as Regards Human and Cosmic 

 Evolution. — We must now return to the argument 

 expounded by Huxley in his *' Romanes Lecture 

 on Evolution and Ethics." The argument was 

 that the mechanism of organic evolution is natural 

 selection in an inexorable struggle for existence, 

 in which there is nothing but ruthless self-asser- 

 tion, a treading down of rivals, a gladiatorial show, 

 more or less enduring suffering, and the result of 

 which is merely the survival of the most suitable, 

 not of the best in any sense. If this be so, then 

 "the practice of that which is ethically best — what 

 we call goodness or virtue — involves a course of 

 conduct which, in all respects, is opposed to that 

 which leads to success in the cosmic struggle for 

 existence." *^ Social progress means the checking 

 of the cosmic process at every step, and the substi- 

 tution for it of the ethical process, the end of which 

 is not the survival of the fittest, but the survival 

 of those ethically the best." Man must pit his 

 microcosm against the macrocosm, and he must 

 not be discouraged. " Man alone," as Goethe said, 

 "can achieve the impossible." The dwarf by his 

 intelligence can bend the Titan to his will in mat- 

 ters practical, so may it be in the domain of morals. 

 "The intelligence which has converted the brother 

 of the wolf into the faithful guardian of the flock 

 ought to be able to do something toward curbing 

 the instincts of savagery in civilized men." But, 



