INTRODUCTION 



PEIS book is the outcome of a suggestion which 

 I once made to my friend George Nasmyth, 

 to the effect that Novikov's work on the appli- 

 cation of Darwinism to social problems was notX 

 known to the English-speaking world as it ought 

 to be. Such a presentation could not be a mere 

 work of translation. For one thing, Novikov had 

 a mind that saw so many sides of his subject and 

 saw his arguments so completely that some of his 

 books run into unmanageable lengths. Now no 

 wise man lightly shoulders a labour of condensa- 

 tion, even if the raw material is his own. To take 

 a man like Novikov, condense him, and still 

 deliver his full message means knowing the subject 

 better than he knew it himself and knowing his 

 mind better than he did. That is a large order. 

 What happens, of course, in such a case is that 

 the interpreter has to write a new book, and that 

 is what Nasmyth has done. 



This book has to do with one or two of the few 

 really fundamental questions which concern men 

 condemned to live together in society — as all men 

 are. Yet a book of this character is more likely to 

 be read about and talked about than read ; just as 



