I PROLEGOMENA 43 



XV 



To return, once more, to the parallel of horti- 

 culture. In the modern world, the gardening of 

 men by themselves is practically restricted to the 

 performance, not of selection, but of that other 

 function of the gardener, the creation of condi- 

 tions more favourable than those of the state of 

 nature ; to the end of facilitating the free ex- 

 pansion of the innate faculties of the citizen, so 

 far as it is consistent with the general good. 

 And the business of the moral and political 

 philosopher appears to me to be the ascertainment, 

 by the same method of observation, experiment, 

 and ratiocination, as is practised in other kinds 

 of scientific work, of the course of conduct which 

 will best conduce to that end. 



But, supposing this course of conduct to be 

 scientifically determined and carefully followed 

 out, it cannot put an end to the struggle for 

 existence in the state of nature ; and it will not so 

 much as tend, in any way, to the adaptation of 

 man to that state. Even should the whole human 

 race be absorbed in one vast polity, within which 

 " absolute political justice " reigns, the struggle 

 for existence with the state of nature outside it, 

 and the tendency to the return of the struggle 

 within, in consequence of over-multiplication, will 

 remain ; and, unless men's inheritance from the 

 ancestors who fought a good fight in the state of 



