II EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 81 



humbler organisms, until the ' fittest ' that sur- 

 vived might be nothing but lichens, diatoms, and 

 such microscopic organisms as those which give 

 red snow its colour ; while, if it became hotter, the 

 pleasant valleys of the Thames and Isis might be 

 uninhabitable by any animated beings save those 

 that flourish in a tropical jungle. They, as the 

 fittest, the best adapted to the changed conditions, 

 would survive. 



Men in society are undoubtedly subject to the 

 cosmic process. As among other animals, multi- 

 plication goes on without cessation, and involves 

 severe competition for the means of support. The 

 struggle for existence tends to eliminate those less 

 fitted to adapt themselves to the circumstances 

 of their existence. The strongest, the most self- 

 assertive, tend to tread down the weaker. But 

 the influence of the cosmic process on the evolu- 

 tion of society is the greater the more rudimentary 

 its civilization. Social progress means a checking 

 of the cosmic process at every step and the sub- 

 stitution for it of another, which may be called 

 the ethical process ; the end of which is not the 

 survival of those who may happen to be the 

 fittest, in respect of the whole of the conditions 

 which obtain, but of those who are ethically the 

 best.20 



As I have already urged, the practice of that 

 which is ethically best — what we call goodness or 

 virtue — involves a course of conduct which, in all 



VOL. IX G 



