42O DARWINISM AND THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE 



can we do it for the future. How can we say with any 

 confidence what the conditions of life will be in the 

 future with which the coming race will have to 

 harmonise. 



The Darwinists who would deduce a system of ethics 

 from their theory say that moral laws are only safely 

 established when they are natural laws. We have seen 

 how a law of nature is formulated. Individual 

 phenomena are considered in their common features, 

 and these are then embodied in a law. Moral laws 

 must be framed in the same way. The individuals have 

 then to range themselves under the law, like an example 

 of a genius under the generic title. Hence a scientific 

 ethics would have to demand that everyone should be 

 as far as possible an "average man." Only what he 

 has in common with his fellows is essential ; his 

 individual and distinctive traits must be as slight as 

 possible, if he is to be as moral as possible in the 

 scientific sense. Science, which overlooks individuality 

 in the formation of its concepts and regards it as 

 unessential, must demand that the men who would 

 realise its ideal shall have little or no individuality. 



As a matter of fact, we find confirmation of this when 

 we read about future states and Darwinian ideals. No 

 account can be taken of the individual ; he must merge 

 into the general. The "general" or common interest 

 is the basket of the " social " state. 



Nietzsche has given us a masterly description of the 

 Darwinian ideal of the coming race in his " last men." 

 It shows the complete insipidity of the theory that looks 



