rHE SURVIVAL OF tHE Fir^ESt 117 



dominant. It is not in our heredity, it is always an acquired 

 character. In most of the views and theories not to mention 

 practices, of to-day dominance and fitness are regarded as 

 synonyms. They are really antitheses, mutually incompatible. 



All our mammalian ancestors, and birds and mammals gen- 

 erally, have been social forms giving mutual aid. Is Huxley 

 speaking the truth when he says: '' 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 " ? 



Says Thomson: "In thinking of the 'process of Natural 

 Selection it is of real importance to recognize, with Darwin, 

 that the phrase ' struggle for existence ' is used ' in a wide 

 and metaphorical sense,' including much more than an inter- 

 necine scramble for the necessaries of Hfe, — including indeed 

 all endeavors for preservation and welfare. Not only of the 

 individual, but the offspring as well. ... It is much more than 

 a long-drawn-out series of family quarrels ending in more 

 room and food for a few surviving members: it may often be 

 more justly described as an endeavor after well-being. And 

 what may have been primarily self-regarding impulses be- 

 come replaced by others which are distinctively species main- 

 taining, the self failing to find realization apart from its 

 family and its kindred." " The reason why we are so much 

 concerned with getting away from an ultra-Darwinian picture 

 of Nature is not merely because it seems to us inaccurate, but 

 because the libellous conception projected from human society 

 upon Nature has been brought back again to society as a guide 

 and sanction of human conduct, even as an ethical and polit- 

 ical ideal." ^ 



And yet during the building up of the neuro-muscular sys- 

 tem by worms and early vertebrates, there was much of the 

 gladiatorial struggle and competition to the death. There are 

 undeserved misery, pain, suffering and injustice still. We 

 cannot deny it. We are here to remove or at least mitigate 

 them. Let us assume honestly and squarely our share of the 



*K. 164. 



