FROM COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD PART m 



primary form of morality, was actually a factor in 

 securing further progress. 



Yet a third reason for valuing Mr. Sutherland's 

 book lies in the instances it points out of progress 

 coming to its limit in certain directions, and so 

 terminating. 



We must now try to describe briefly the leading 

 thoughts of this full and interesting discussion with 

 its admirable wealth of examples. We begin with 

 biology. 



The first of all necessities is that emphasised by 

 Darwin's doctrine, that the individual organisms 

 should be fit or fittest to survive in the endless strug- 

 gle of life. This postulate, however, does not carry 

 us very far. The individual may survive, but the 

 race will not survive or preponderate unless the vic- 

 torious adult organism is able to bequeath its position 

 to offspring, and thus to reproduce its great qualities 

 the congenital, if not the acquired qualities 

 in a subsequent generation. Of course the con- 

 verse is equally true. There can be no transmission 

 of qualities unless there is first, and for a time, per- 

 sonal survival! Therefore, Darwin's postulate may 

 occupy the first place in our list of requisites. But 

 the course of discussion has made the position clearer. 

 It is not individual organism that competes against 

 individual, but stock against stock. The prize of 

 survival goes not simply to individual strength, but to 

 individual strength//^ an abundant healthy offspring. 



Now there are two ways in which nature has 

 secured, and does secure, the maintenance of species. 

 One is the method of quantity, the other of quality. 



