CHAP, xii DARWINISM IN POLITICS: BAGEHOT 131 



notes others. For example, he dwells on the impor- 

 tance of the blending of races. Such mixture, it is 

 thought, frequently improves the breed, and so leads 

 to evolutionary progress. But even if it results in no 

 improvement or even if it tends to deterioration 

 it may yield a new type, and so conduce to variety of 

 result ; if not to progress, yet to differentiation. 



We take leave then of this most interesting little 

 book with three remarks. First ; it does not yet 

 show us Darwinism in relation to ethics or even in 

 relation to sociology in the stricter sense, but rather 

 in relation to politics. Now in politics there can be 

 no question that we have before us a spectacle of 

 competition pre-eminently, but by no means solely, 

 in the fierce rivalries of actual war. And so the 

 application of Darwinian ideas in this region is 

 unquestionably lawful, if a trifle obvious. Secondly ; 

 in spite of his references to the nervous system, 

 Bagehot assumes inheritance mainly by the psychical 

 and political forces of imitation and custom. Thirdly ; 

 he does not to any great extent connect the other 

 side of politics progress, social dynamics with 

 natural selection in the strict sense. Progress as well 

 as stability rests upon imitation and upon the possibil- 

 ity of loans in culture. To a certain extent progress 

 rests upon war but not upon wars of extermination ; 

 not, therefore, on elimination of the unfit and survival 

 of none but the fittest. Mainly progress is due to 

 the habit of political discussion, and to happy circum- 

 stances giving that habit great effect. In other words, 

 Bagehot's social dynamics centre round a purely 

 political idea. Not the biological analogy but special 

 historical knowledge has been his guide. Darwin 



