JOHN WESLEY POWELL DAVIS 



wonders is the transfiguration of selfishness into love" (Human 

 Evolution, Trans. Anthrop. Soc. Wash., II, 1883, p. 208). 



He repeatedly returned to the insufficience of the struggle 

 for existence in human development. "In anthropic combina- 

 tions the units are men, and men at this stage are no longer 

 passive objects, but active subjects, and instead of man being 

 passively adapted to the environment, he adapts the environ- 

 ment to himself through his activities. This is the essential 

 characteristic of anthropic evolution. Adaptation becomes 

 active instead of passive. ... It has been shown that 

 man does not compete with the lower animals for existence. 

 In like manner, man does not compete with man for existence; 

 for, by the development of activities, men are interdependent 

 in such a manner that the welfare of one depends upon the 

 welfare of others; and as men discover that welfare must 

 necessarily be mutual, egoism is transmitted into altruism, 

 and moral sentiments are developed which become the guiding 

 principle of mankind. So morality repeals the law of the 

 survival of the fittest in the struggle for existence, and man 

 is thus immeasurably superior to the beast. In animal evolu- 

 tion many are sacrified for the benefit of the few. Among 

 mankind the welfare of one depends upon the welfare of all, 

 because interdependence has been established" (The three 

 Methods of Evolution, Bull. Phil. Soc. Wash., VI, 1883, 

 XLVIIL, L). Again: "The struggle for existence between 

 human individuals is murder, and the best are not selected 

 thereby. The struggle for existence between bodies of men 

 is warfare, and the best are not selected thereby. The law o f . 

 natural selection, which Darwin and a host of others have so 

 clearly pointed out as the means by which the progress of ani- 

 mals and plants has been secured; cannot be relied upon to 

 secure the progress of mankind. . . . There are always 

 too many plants born. . . . There are always too many 

 animals born. . . . There are not too many human beings 

 born into the world in lands of the highest civilization, because 

 the earth is not now and never has been filled with men to the 

 limit of its capacity; the great majority are not, therefore, 

 killed off in the struggle for existence, and there is not a small 

 remnant of the best preserved to continue human existence 



