334 COSMIC PEILOSOPHT, [pt. n. 



the human race, partly on account of the extreme complexity 

 of its individual organization, partly on account of super- 

 added social conditions, the action of natural selection is to 

 a great extent checked. I do not allude to the fact that the 

 supremely important human sympathies, which have grown 

 up in the course of social evolution, compel us to protect the 

 idle and intemperate, so that, instead of starving, they are 

 " enabled to multij)ly at the expense of the capable and in- 

 dustrious." For far deeper than this lies the circumstance 

 that " there are so many kinds of superiorities which seve- 

 rally enable men to survive, notwithstanding accompanying 

 inferiorities, that natural selection cannot by itself rectify 

 any particular unfitness ; especially if, as usually happens, 

 there are coexisting unfitnesses which all vary independently."^ 

 In a race of inferior animals a function in excess is quickly 

 reduced by natural selection, because, owing to the universal 

 slaughter, the highest completeness of life possible to a given 

 grade of organization is required for the mere maintenance 

 of life. But under the conditions surrounding human deve- 

 lopment, a function in excess may remain in excess provided 

 its undue exercise is not such as is incompatible with life. 

 Through countless ages, for example, the feelings which in- 

 sure the maintenance of the race have been strengthened by 

 natural selection, because of their prime importance to every 

 race. But under the conditions of civilized life, the sexual 

 passion has become a function in excess, which natural selec- 

 tion is powerless to reduce, because, although it is probably 

 the source of more crime and misery than any other excessive 

 function, and therefore detracts more from complete individu- 

 ation or the fulness of human life than any other, it is never- 

 theless but seldom incompatible with the maintenance of life. 

 In all such cases, mankind has so many other functions, be- 

 sides the excessive ones, which enable it to subsist and 

 achieve progress in spite of them, that their reduction to the 

 ^ Spencer, op. cit. i. 284. 



