ETHICS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE. 235 



It is true that this suggests one of the most difficult questions 

 of the time. It is suggested, for example, that in some respects 

 the " highest " specimens of the race are not the healthiest or the 

 fittest. Genius, according to some people, is a variety of disease, 

 and intellectual power is won by a diminution of reproductive 

 power. A lower race, again, if we measure " high " and " low " by 

 intellectual capacity, may oust a higher race, because it can support 

 itself more cheaply, or, in other words, because it is more efficient 

 for industrial purposes. Without presuming to pronounce upon 

 such questions, I will simply ask whether this does not interpret 

 Prof. Huxley's remark about that "cosmic nature" which, he 

 says, is still so strong, and which is likely to be strong so long as 

 men require stomachs. The fact is simply that we have not to 

 suppress it, but to adapt it to new circumstances. We are engaged 

 in working out a gigantic problem : What is the best, in the sense 

 of the most efficient, type of human being ? What is the best 

 combination of brains and stomach ? We turn out saints who are 

 <l too good to live," and philosophers who have run too rapidly to 

 brains. They do not answer in practice, because they are instru- 

 ments too delicate for the rough work of daily life. They may 

 give a foretaste of qualities which will be some day possible for 

 the average man ; of intellectual and moral qualities which, 

 though now exceptional, may become commonplace. But the 

 best stock for the race are those in whom we have been lucky 

 enough to strike out the happy combination in which greater 

 intellectual power is gained without the loss of physical vigor. 

 Such men, it is probable, will not deviate so widely from the aver- 

 age type. The reconciliation of the two conditions can only be 

 effected by a very gradual process of slowly edging onward in 

 the right direction. Meanwhile the theory of a struggle for 

 existence justifies us, instead of condemning us, for preserving 

 the delicate child, who may turn out to be a Newton or a Keats, 

 because he will leave to us the advantage of his discoveries or his 

 poems, while his physical feebleness assures us that he will not 

 propagate his race. 



This may lead to a final question : Does the morality of a race 

 strengthen or weaken it ; fit it to hold its own in the general equi- 

 librium, or make its extirpation by lower races more probable ? 

 I do not suppose that anybody would deny what I have already 

 suggested, that the more moral the race, the more harmonious and 

 the better organized, the better it is fitted for holding its own. 

 But if this be admitted, we must also admit that the change is 

 not that it has ceased to struggle, but that it struggles by differ- 

 ent means. It holds its own, not merely by brute force, but by 

 justice, humanity, and intelligence, while, it may be added, the 

 possession of such qualities does not weaken the brute force, 



