256 THE GOSPEL, AND THE SOCIAL CREED OF SCIENCE. 



tionist ; that in fact the old ordeal of actual battle, and 

 the survival of the conqueror, is not yet wholly antiquated 

 or out of fashion with men, and before the majority 

 consent to perish slowly one by one under the eternal 

 pressure of poverty and the operation of natural selec- 

 tion, they may prefer to make appeal to the ancient, but 

 still lawful and still practised trial of the strong, if an 

 earlier amelioration of their condition be pronounced 

 impossible. The issue would at least be more quickly 

 decided ; the end would be worth the cost, worth at least 

 the hazarding the very moderate minimum of happiness 

 which the majority enjoy at present, and which small 

 amount, moreover, is all that optimist science and evolu- 

 tion are able to promise .them for generations to come, 

 with which to sustain their patience. 



But we are seasonably advised that we must not 

 rise in rebellion against Science and natural laws. No, 

 certainly. Where it is a question of unvarying physical 

 or natural laws, of settled sequences that will have place 

 whatever men may do, it would be foolish to try to 

 defeat them. But let it well be noted, we do not regard 

 all your so-called sociological and economic laws as of 

 this description. For all these lately discovered laws of 

 society are made by the actions and behaviour of men ; 

 they are only possible by the consent and volitions of 

 men ; and these are determined, as Science knows and 

 teaches, by motives, which, in the case of masses of 

 men, turn mainly on considerations of self-interest. 

 After the laws have been pointed out by Science and 

 recognized by men, it still depends on men's agreement 

 whether they are to continue or no. It depends on the 

 assent and consent of men whether any ascertained social 

 law, any observed relation of men to each other, any 

 particular definition of property, even any particular 



