vii LAW AND PRINCIPLE 199 



course of evolution has advanced is not that of self- 

 interest, but of self-sacrifice, of the subjugation of the 

 individual to the needs of the type. There is indeed 

 very little evidence of any struggle for existence among 

 animals of the same species. Animals are, as a lule, 

 banded together for tribal protection, and those thrive 

 best which have the best organisation for mutual 

 defence. Evolution thus embodies the idea of social 

 ethics and makes the welfare of the community the 

 essential purpose of the life of the creature. The idea 

 that Darwinism signifies nothing more than striving 

 after personal or national mastery at all costs is a crude 

 misconception of this great principle, which was re- 

 pudiated alike by its founder and by Huxley, its most 

 powerful exponent, as contrary to the best ends of 

 civilisation. 



The practice of that which is ethically best what we call 

 goodness or virtue involves a course of conduct which, in all 

 respects, is opposed to that which leads to success in the cosmic 

 struggle for existence. In place of ruthless self-assertion it 

 demands self-restraint ; in place of thrusting aside, or treading 

 down, all competitors, it requires that the individual shall not 

 merely respect, but shall help his fellows ; its influence is directed, 

 not so much to the survival of the fittest, as to the fitting of as 

 many as possible to survive. It repudiates the gladiatorial theory 

 of existence. It demands that each man who enters into the 

 enjoyment of the advantages of a polity shall be mindful of his 

 debt to those who have laboriously constructed it ; and shall 

 take heed that no act of his weakens the fabric in which he has 

 been permitted to live. Laws and moral precepts are directed 

 to the end of curbing the cosmic process and reminding the 

 individual of his duty to the community, to the protection and 

 influence of which he owes, if not existence itself, at least the life 

 of something better than a brutal savage. Huxley. 



The existence of the spiritual or altruistic side of man's 

 nature cannot be said to be explained adequately by 



