45 



the best, and that precisely because in a 

 normal society it is to normal individuals that 

 victory belongs. Social Darwinism, therefore, 

 in continuing natural Darwinism will bring 

 about a selection towards the best. To 

 answer completely this affirmation of an 

 unlimited aristocratic selection, I must recall 

 another natural law which completes this 

 rhythm of action and reaction whence results 

 the equilibrium of life. 



To the Darwinian law of natural inequalities 

 must be joined another law which is insepar- 

 able from it and which Jacoby following the 

 works of Morel, Lucas, Galton, De Candole, 

 Ribot, Spencer, Mme. Royer, Lombroso, etc., 

 has brought into full daylight. 



This same nature which makes of "choice" 

 and of aristocratic elevation a condition of 

 vital progress, then re-establishes equilibrium 

 by a levelling and democratic law. 



" Out of the immensity of humanity indi- 

 viduals, families, and races spring up which 

 tend to raise themselves above the common 

 level. Painfully they climb abrupt heights, 

 reach the summit of power, of wealth, of 

 intelligence, of talent, and, once having 

 attained,. are precipitated below and disappear 

 in the abysses of madness and degeneracy. 

 Death is the great leveller ; whilst annihilating 

 all that rise, it democratises humanity.* 



* Jacoby, Etudes sur la selection dans ses rapports 

 avec I' herddit& chez I' homme, Paris, 1881, p. 606. 



Lombroso, The Man of Genius, London, 1889, has 

 developed and completed this law. 



It is this law which all those forget too easily who, 



