138 DARWINISM AND RACE PROGRESS. 



to-day are tending to bring about such a result, we 

 must admit the danger into which we are passing, 

 and see whether there is not a way of escape. We 

 cannot but feel a strong sympathy with every plan 

 which tends to place a round man in a round hole, 

 and to develop to the utmost whatever of capacity, 

 whatever of goodness, there may be present at any 

 one time in the social community. Our sympathy 

 for the downtrodden, and our efforts to assist those 

 who are willing to do life's better work, are but 

 expressions of the fact that we live and have lived 

 together socially, because we have it in us to love, 

 and to value the love of others. It would indeed be 

 a sad tale if that love had never acted in perhaps 

 unwise excess, if it had not prompted us to action, 

 which we may afterwards realise is not in itself and 

 by itself the most judicious. 



As already maintained, we naturally consider our 

 fellows first, and we study the picture of life around 

 us ; our power of foretelling the future and the 

 results of our present actions comes later on. So it 

 is that our politicians, in cases where sincerity is 

 undoubted, have aimed at the betterment of the 

 individual, and the adjustment in the community of 

 individual capacity to suitable occupation. Few 

 have ever asked themselves the question, What will 

 be the result of my present action on the next 

 generation born ? For this there is every excuse, for 



