"If one wishes to attribute a political 

 tendency to this English theory which is 

 allowable this tendency would only be 

 aristocratic, not at all democratic, still less 

 socialistic. 



"The theory of selection teaches that in the 

 life of humanity, as in that of plants and 

 animals, everywhere and always a small 

 privileged minority alone succeeds in living 

 and developing itself ; the immense majority, 

 on the contrary, suffer and succumb more or 

 less prematurely. The germs of every kind of 

 plant and animal, and the young that are 

 produced from them, are innumerable. But 

 the number of those which have the good 

 fortune to develop to their complete maturity 

 and which attain the aim of their existence, 

 is comparatively insignificant. 



" The cruel and pitiless ' struggle for exis- 

 tence ' which goes on everywhere in animate 

 nature, and most naturally go on, this eternal 

 and inexorable competition of all that lives, 

 is an undeniable fact. Only the small num- 

 ber chosen from the strongest and fittest can 

 sustain this competition victoriously : the 

 large majority of the unhappy competitors 

 must necessarily perish. This tragic fatality 

 may well be deplored, but it cannot be denied 

 nor changed. All are called, but few are 

 chosen. 



" The selection, the ' election,' of these 

 ' chosen ones,' is necessarily connected with 

 the defeat or the loss of a great number of 

 their living fellow creatures. Thus, another 



