xxii ANALYTICAL CONTENTS 



mann's changes of opinion before 1893 Especially this change: 

 ENVIRONMENT MAY DO SOMETHING TO MODIFY GERM PLASM ! 

 Making true use-inheritance conceivable, though not inevitable 



Mr. Kidd is anachronous Panmixia, the absence of natural 

 selection, is held to involve indefinite retrogression; important; 

 questionable 



CHAPTER XIX 



HYPER-DARWINISM IN SOCIOLOGY: STRUGGLE MADE ABSOLUTE 

 MR. KIDD 



Resemblance to Comte Intenser emphasis on biology [cf. Mr. Platt- 

 Ball] (i) Panmixia = degeneration is inconsistent with dreams 

 of socialism or of final balance Selfishness, however, may not 

 care for remote consequences [Ought Panmixia further to imply 

 extinction?] Also, social "statics" are blotted out And evolu- 

 tion becomes almost identical with progress Could not Mr. Kidd 

 save many essential positions without this assumption? (2) Next, 

 if progress implies struggle And selfish reason makes unwilling 

 to struggle for good of the race, supernatural counterpoise of 

 religion must help, as hitherto Now, Weismann had riddled his 

 own position with qualifications Kidd also appeals to biology by 

 a doctrine of the social organism; but everything here depends on 

 philosophy, not biology (3) First, the doctrine of reason; reason 

 is formal, as with A. J. Balfour, Darwin, Drummond For Mr. 

 Kidd also holds that biological law applies without a break to 

 rational man Yet reason disturbs process of evolution And 

 Bagehot, Stephen, Drummond have noted other changes due to it 



Can it be wholly evil? Balfour and Kidd repudiate Kant or 

 Coleridge's deeper sense of " reason " But they cannot avoid 

 such sense if it lies in the word and in the fact (4) Secondly, 

 doctrine of religion as anti-rational Not = "future judgment"; 

 that is rational ! Can we believe the irrational ? Does not Kidd 

 tamper with Christian equalitarianism? Biologically; variation 

 may be purposeful and professive Historically; reason is pro- 

 gressive; by rational methods Religion its fulfilment It needs 

 a force to give it motive and constancy 



