224 FROM COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD PART in 



therefore depends on (what is called) natural selection, 

 minus reason, \>\\\.plus religion. So Mr. Kidd tells us. 

 We should say that it depends upon reason plus 

 morality///^ religion. And since it depends on rea- 

 son, it depends on those who have reason most fully, 

 and yet are brothers to those who have least of it ; in 

 other words, social progress depends upon great men. 

 We lesser men stand on their shoulders ; as reasonable 

 beings, we share in their discoveries. On their side 

 they are not independent of us, the little men. Even 

 the ruthless Napoleon Bonaparte is said to have made 

 that confession. "Why," he asked of David, "have 

 you put those tiny troops and guns into the corner of 

 my portrait? I ought to be alone." The embarrassed 

 painter apologised as best he could. He thought that 

 the sketch of the army in the background had a his- 

 torical interest, etc., etc., when Napoleon, having re- 

 covered his good temper, remarked, "After all I owe 

 a good deal to these worthy little men." Well might 

 he say so ! 



Finally, among the different human provinces, we 

 have the assertion that natural selection prevails in 

 morals. 



Professor Alexander alleges this of moral ideas. 

 They struggle against each other, and the fittest sur- 

 vive. Stripped of metaphor, the meaning is that free 

 discussion is a condition of progress in moral thought. 

 Surely, it is one condition. But it is a psychical con- 

 dition ; it implies reason ; it implies the power of the 

 great man to indoctrinate others. 



Mr. Alexander has not affirmed literal natural se- 

 lection. It was impossible that he should, though in 



