262 FROM COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD PART iv 



the life and history of man. The young lions of the 

 Radical party will welcome Mr. Kidd's formula with 

 delight ; but one would rather hear what the old lions 

 have to say to it. 



Yet another consequence may be noted ; evolution, 

 with Weismann and Mr. Kidd, is almost though not 

 altogether equivalent to progress. It is progress 

 wherever it is not downright retrogression. Stagna- 

 tion is impossible, panmixia and retrogression are 

 rare. No doubt panmixia will yield continuous evo- 

 lutionary change while it lasts ; but panmixia is 

 essentially a limited phenomenon ; it is an exception 

 to the general rule. It may prevail in solitary islands, 

 literal or metaphorical ; but the great tides and con- 

 tinents of life are peopled by struggling, suffering, 

 progressive creatures. On a broad view, evolution 

 means progress. 



Before leaving this assumption, it may be well to 

 ask how much depends upon it ? Go on, or you will 

 go back ; acquiesce in struggle, if you don't wish to 

 retrograde ; that is a very urgent appeal an over- 

 whelming appeal, one might call it. Yet in many 

 respects the same result might be reached by the 

 narrower and less urgent, yet tolerably effective 

 appeal, acquiesce in struggle if you wish to progress 

 and to avoid stagnation. Few of us would be con- 

 tent with a " stationary state " from the present hour 

 and onwards. The narrower appeal would hold us. 

 The same practical results would be reached, with a 

 less precarious and less vulnerable array of assump- 

 tions. Socialism would still be condemned as arrest- 

 ing the further progress of the species. Evolution 

 and progress might still be regarded as equivalents 



