424 DARWINISM AND THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE 



moral laws because they alone lead to ever-increasing 

 values? We have already rejected this idea so often 

 that we need not enlarge on it here. The principle 

 of selection is not a principle of progress. It does not 

 lead up inevitably to the "highest being," to man; he 

 is the accidental outcome of one branch of the organic 

 system. Even in the evolutionary series, of which 

 man is the terminus, we cannot speak of progress ; 

 it would not be scientific, but anthropomorphic. In 

 the eyes of science man is not "higher" than the 

 other animals. It is precisely one of the elements 

 of the success of the scientific view that it brings 

 man into level with other living things. It is illogical 

 suddenly to raise him again to the position of the 

 "highest being." 



Further, it is entirely wrong to say that selection 

 gives increasing value to the frames of animals, because 

 it makes them increasingly fit to maintain their exist- 

 ence. Maintenance of existence has nothing to do 

 with maintenance of value. Science has only attained 

 its great results by studying the world independently 

 of all considerations of value. It sees nothing but 

 changes. Certainly, its organisation will seem valuable 

 to an animal when it sees that it fares better in life 

 than its fellows owing to it. In the same way, man 

 will attribute value to everything that is useful to 

 himself. But this way of thinking is not scientific. 

 The scientist has only to determine that there are 

 human beings and animals, and that some survive 

 and others perish on account of their bodily character- 



