GREAT PAGAN RETROGRESSION 49 



science of civilization. It is the doctrine of the 

 efficiency of the animal. It has absolutely nothing 

 to do with the causes making for collective efficiency 

 in the social and moral world founded on mind which 

 is evolving in civilization. Darwinism represents 

 indeed the very antithesis of the principles of that 

 social integration which is taking place in civiliza- 

 tion. The dividing line, moreover, is absolutely 

 fundamental. For the first principle of evolution 

 in the world of the efficient animal of Darwinism 

 is the supremacy and omnipotence therein of in- 

 dividuals or groups of individuals efficient in their 

 own interests. The first principle, on the contrary, 

 in the evolution of the social world of civilization lies 

 in the subordination of individuals. The ascending 

 history of the human race is indeed nothing else 

 than the progressive history of the sacrifice of the 

 individual efficient for himself to the meaning of 

 that collective efficiency which is being organized 

 in civilization gradually merging in the universal. 



The progress of humanity has, therefore, over and 

 above every other feature this meaning. It is the 

 epic of the vast, tragic, ennobling, immortalizing, 

 all-conquering ethic of Renunciation. The story of 

 creation up to and including human savagery is 

 simply the story of the supremacy in the world of 

 physical force organized in the life of the efficient 



