CHAPTER IV. 



THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. 



The third and last division of Haeckel's argu- 

 ment is correct if it is restricted to the purely 

 biological and Darwinian domain, but his 

 starting point is false if it is applied to the 

 social domain and is used as an objection to 

 socialism. 



It is said: the struggle for existence secures 

 the survival of the best or the best fitted ; it 

 consequently determines an aristocratic pro- 

 cess of individualist selection and not the 

 democratic levelling of socialism. 



Here again, let us begin by finding out 

 exactly once more, of what consists this famous 

 natural selection, the consequence of the 

 struggle for existence. 



The expression of which Haeckel makes use, 

 and which is besides commonly employed, 

 "survival of the best or the best adapted," 

 ought to be corrected. We ought to suppress 

 the adjective best. It is the residue of a 

 teleology which saw in nature and history a 

 finality to be attained by means of a continuous 

 amelioration. 



Darwinism, on the contrary, and still more 

 the theory of universal evolution, has excluded 

 all finality from modern scientific thought a'nd 

 from the interpretation of natural phenomena; 

 evolution consists both of involution and dis- 

 solution. It can happen, and it does happen, 

 that in comparing the two ends of the road 



