68 INTRODUCTION 



end possible; the preservation of the individual 

 must, in a variable degree according to circum- 

 stances, be subordinated to the preservation of 

 the species, where the two conflict."^ 



What Mr. Kidd has succeeded, and splendidly 

 succeeded, in doing is to show that Nature as 

 interpreted in terms of the Struggle for Life con- 

 tains no sanction either for morality or for social 

 progress. But instead of giving up Nature and 

 Reason at this point, he should have given up 

 Darwin. The Struggle for Life is not " the 

 supreme fact up to which biology has slowly 

 advanced." It is the fact to which Darwin ad- 

 vanced ; but if biology had been thoroughly con- 

 sulted it could not have given so maimed an 

 account of itself. With the final conclusion reached 

 by Mr. Kidd we have no quarrel. Eliminate the 

 errors due to an unrevised acceptance of Mr. 

 Darwin's interpretation of Nature, and his work 

 remains the most important contribution to Social 

 Evolution which the last decade has seen. But 

 what startles us is his method. To put the future 

 of Social Science on an ultra-rational basis is 

 practically to give it up. Unless thinking men 

 have, some sense of the consistency of a method 

 they cannot work with it, and if there is no 

 '^Principles of Ethics^ Vol. II., p. 6. 



i 



