176 EVOLUTION, SOCIAL AND ORGANIC 



mains practically stationary. Ward objects 

 very strongly to this insane waste of nature 

 being set up as a model for human society,, 

 and he is entitled to the sympathy of Social- 

 ists who have always protested against the 

 planless anarchy of capitalist production, 

 which however, bad as it is, can hardly be 

 considered a circumstance compared with the 

 random waste of nature. 



"The waste of being," says Asa Gray, "is 

 enormous, far beyond the common apprehen- 

 sion. Seeds, eggs, and other germs, are de- 

 signed to be plants and animals, but not one 

 of a thousand or a million achieves its de- 

 stiny." And Gray quotes with approval from 

 an article in the Westminster Review : "When 

 we find that the sowing is a scattering at 

 random, and that for one being provided for 

 and living, ten thousand perish unprovided 

 for, we must allow that the existing order 

 would be considered the worst disorder in any 

 human sphere of action," 



Ward, of course, takes the same view: "No 

 one will object to having nature's methods 

 fully explained and exposed, and thoroughly 

 taught as a great truth of science. It is only 

 when it is held up as a model to be followed 

 by man and all are forbidden to 'meddle' with 

 its operations that it becomes necessary to 



