514 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL CHAP. 



existence shall prosper least a law which, if uninterfered with, 

 entails survival of the fittest, and spread of the most adapted 

 varieties. And, as before, so here, we see that, ethically considered, 

 this law implies, that each individual ought to receive the benefits and 

 evils of his oum nature and consequent conduct : neither being prevented 

 from having whatever good his actions normally bring him, nor allowed 

 to shoulder off on to other persons whatever ill is brought to him by his 

 actions. " 



The passage printed in italics is the " law of social 

 justice " deduced from the law of the survival of the 

 fittest, and it is appealed to again and again throughout 

 the volume, but is usually indicated by the shorter formula 

 " each shall receive the benefits and evils due to his own 

 nature and consequent conduct." 1 In all our sports 

 and trials of skill or endurance, we aim at equality of 

 conditions for the competitors, who are all of nearly equal 

 age and in good health, while their preliminary training 

 has been nearly the same ; and it is universally recognized 

 that the skill or endurance of each can only be ascertained 

 by such equal or fair conditions. 



But when it is a question, not of mere sports or amuse- 

 ments, but of the real battle of life, failure in which often 

 means continuous hardship, want, or premature death, 

 with the loss to friends and to the community of all those 

 higher qualities or talents which were undeveloped through 

 want of leisure or opportunity, we make no attempt what- 

 ever to give fair play to all alike. How much we lose by 

 this unfairness no one can tell, but the poets have always 

 recognized that there is such a loss. Gray tells of the 

 " village Hampdens " and the " mute inglorious Miltons " 

 that may have passed away unknown, and of the hearts 

 " once pregnant with celestial fire "- 



" But knowledge to their eyes her ample page 

 Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll ; 

 Chill Penury repress'd their noble rage 

 And froze the genial current of the soul " : 







1 It would operate, not as among the lower animals and plants by 

 the actual destruction of the unfit, but by their less rapid increase, 

 since, under equal conditions of education and mode of life, it is certain 

 that marriage would be delayed till some industrial success had been 

 reached by both parties. 



