266 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



were it even by a hairbreadth, secures its place ; so 

 that all existing lives must, with reference to their 

 environment, be the best possible lives. Natural 

 Selection is the means employed in Nature to bring 

 about perfect health, perfect wholeness, perfect 

 adaptation, and in the long run the Ascent of all 

 living things. 



This being so, the Law of the Struggle for Life 

 is elevated to a unique place in Nature as a first 

 necessity of progress. It involves that every living 

 thing in Nature shall live its best, that every resource 

 shall be called out to its utmost, that every indi- 

 vidual faculty shall be kept in the most perfect 

 order and work up to its fullest strength. So far 

 from being a drag on life, it is the one thing which 

 not only makes life go on at all, but which in 

 the very act perfects it. The result may sometimes 

 involve the dethroning of a species, or its entire 

 extinction : it may lead in the case of others to 

 degeneration ; but in the end it must result in the 

 gradual perfecting of organisms upon the whole, 

 and the steady advance of the final type. In 

 fixing the eye on the murderous side of this 

 Struggle, it is therefore well to remember to 

 what it leads. There could be no higher end 

 in the universe than to make a perfect world, 

 and no more perfect law than that which at the 



