PRINCIPLE OF NATURAL SELECTION. 221 



It seems almost astounding that Malthus did 

 not recognize the importance of this principle 

 of natural selection based on the struggle for 

 existence and develop it deductively. Had he 

 worked out the principle of the survival of the 

 fittest among human beings after he so clearly 

 recognized it, it would have borne rich fruit 

 for the happiness doctrine. It would have re- 

 moved much of the gloom from his principle of 

 population, by showing that much permanent 

 good much more, in fact, than from moral 

 restraint arises from the struggle for exist- 

 ence by its preserving those best fitted to enjoy 

 life. From another point of view, the fact that 

 he did not develop the principle of natural 

 selection, at least within the human race, after 

 he had so plainly recognized both its action 

 and its effects, is not even remarkable. When 

 one has once made a study of the deductive 

 powers of such a man as Darwin, and finds that 

 with his great logical strength he sometimes 

 failed altogether, and was often very long in 

 reaching deductively the consequences of his 

 theory, it is not to be wondered at that Malthus 

 did not grasp one of the most important features 

 of his principle. 



Since he failed to apply the principle of 

 natural selection within the human species, 



