62 INTRODUCTION 



sheets are almost in the press, had " sent his roots 

 deep enough into biological soil " to discover the 

 true foundation for that future Science of Society 

 which he sees to be so imperative. No modern 

 thinker has seen the problem so clearly as Mr. 

 Kidd, but his solution, profoundly true in itself, 

 is vitiated in the eyes of science and philosophy 

 by a basis wholly unsound. With an emphasis 

 which Darwin himself has not excelled, he proclaims 

 the enduring value of the Struggle for Life. He 

 sees its immense significance even in the highest 

 ranges of the social sphere. There it stands with 

 its imperious call to individual assertion, inciting to 

 a rivalry which Nature herself has justified, and 

 encouraging every man by the highest sanctions 

 ceaselessly to seek his own. But he sees nothing 

 else in Nature ; and he encounters therefore the 

 difficulty inevitable from this standpoint. For to 

 obey this voice means ruin to Society, wrong and 

 anarchy against the higher Man. He listens for 

 another voice ; but there is no response. As a 

 social being he cannot, in spite of Nature, act on 

 his first initiative. He must subordinate himself 

 to the larger interest, present and future, of those 

 around him. But why, he asks, must he, since 

 Nature says "Mind thyself"? Till Nature adds the 

 further precept, " Look not every man on his own 



