64 INTRODUCTION 



Society, but Society can only go on upon a 

 principle which is an affront to it. As Man can 

 only attain his highest development in Society, his 

 individual interests must more and more subor- 

 dinate themselves to the welfare of a wider whole. 

 " How is the possession of reason ever to be 

 rendered compatible with the will to submit to 

 conditions of existence so onerous, requiring the 

 effective and continual subordination of the indi- 

 vidual's welfare to the progress of a development 

 in which he can have no personal interest what- 

 ever?"^ 



Mr. Kidd's answer is the bold one that it is 

 not compatible. There is no rational sanction 

 whatever for progress. Progress, in fact, can only 

 go on by enlisting Man's reason against itself. 

 " All those systems of moral philosophy, which 

 have sought to find in the nature of things a 

 rational sanction for human conduct in society, 

 must sweep round and round in futile circles. 

 They attempt an inherently impossible task. The 

 first great social lesson of those evolutionary doc- 

 trines which have transformed the science of the 

 nineteenth century is, that there cannot be such a 

 sanction.' . , . The extraordinary character of 

 the problem presented by human society begins 

 » Op. cit., p. 64. » op. ciL, p. 79. 



