56 ANIMAL LIFE AND HUMAN PROGRESS 



element in education, because without it we cannot appreciate 

 the importance and the reality of a number of fundamental 

 problems bound up with the very nature of man. 



As regards the doctrine of Evolution in the animal kingdom, 

 and its application to human affairs, I have argued that it is 

 the basis of all our hope of progress and betterment in this 

 world. For if we deny evolution, we deny the possibility of 

 change, and progress is change for the better. 



But a pious belief in evolution is not a sufficient guide to 

 our conduct. If we would act rightly we must understand 

 clearly how evolution has come about, to what laws it is sub- 

 ject, and whether those laws can be modified or set aside by 

 man to his own advantage. 



I have been at some pains to convince you that the current 

 doctrine, that evolution in animals and plants depends upon a 

 ratio of increase so high as to lead to unrestricted competition 

 among the individuals of a species, and in consequence to a 

 Struggle for Existence, with extinction of the less fit and Sur- 

 vival of the Fittest, no longer commands the universal assent 

 of zoologists. Indeed, it has been seriously undermined by 

 the discoveries of recent years. 



It is at the best a melancholy doctrine, and if it is not in 

 itself immoral, some of the deductions drawn from it certainly 

 are immoral. 



We must ruefully admit, for past history and present 

 circumstances force the admission, that man does compete 

 bitterly and to the death with his own kind. But this fratri- 

 cidal war is not so evident I doubt whether it exists to any 

 great extent in the animal world. 



It is to be attributed to a want of adaptation in man after 

 he had, by the exercise of his reasoning faculties, obtained 

 such dominion over the brute creation that he became practi- 

 cally immune from the attacks of predaceous animals, and is 

 becoming increasingly immune to the attacks of disease- 

 producing micro-organisms. Because of his pre-eminence, he 

 multiplies without any serious check and has become an 

 enemy to himself. Though he has succeeded in obtaining 

 the control of the rest of creation, he has not yet succeeded 



