SELECTION 175 



it) there is no doubt that the general tone 

 and treatment of Darwinism, even hitherto, 

 has been deeply coloured by the acute indi- 

 vidualism of Darwin's and the preceding age. 

 We may therefore restate here the concluding 

 thesis of our own "Evolution of Sex" (1889), 

 since elaborated in various ways by Drum- 

 mond, by Kropotkin and others. It is that 

 the general progress both of the plant and 

 the animal world, and notably the great up- 

 lifts (see Chapter III above), must be viewed 

 not simply as individual but very largely in 

 terms of sex and parenthood, of family and 

 association; and hence of gregarious flocks 

 and herds, of co-operative packs, of evolving 

 tribes, and thus ultimately of civilized socie- 

 ties — above all, therefore, of the city. Hux- 

 ley's tragic vision of "nature as a gladiatorial 

 show," and consequently of ethical life and 

 progress as merely superposed by man, as 

 therefore an interference with the normal 

 order of Nature, is still far too dominant 

 among us. It threatens even to-day to con- 

 fuse the nascent science, and still more to 

 wreck the incipient art, of Eugenics, in fact 

 to encourage and defend that massacre of 

 the innocents which is expressed in the death- 

 rate of every community; and to extend this 

 to a corresponding view of legislation and 

 government. Here, in fact, is opening the 



