Basis of International Anarchy 39 



which have no " compact " with a superior power to 

 preserve them from its evils. The State being in 

 its essence merely a mutual benefit association, 

 according to this theory, the subject is best served 

 by the success of the State as a predatory enter- 

 prise by which others are despoiled. Law and 

 order, therefore, end with the particular State, 

 according to Hobbes, and internationally, since 

 society is founded upon "interests" and not upon 

 "rights," war will continue indefinitely, because 

 there is no way of stopping it, and that nation will 

 be the best off, which, being the strongest-, can 

 most despoil the rest. 



The dominance of the teachings of Machiavelli, 

 Bodin, and Hobbes in the aristocratic intellectual 

 circles and among the ruling classes of all countries 

 in Darwin's time contributed greatly to the success 

 of the distorted application of his theory to human 

 society. The new "social Darwinism" was seized 

 upon with enthusiasm by all the men of violence 

 because it permitted them to raise the basest in- 

 stincts of greed and vandalism to the height of a 

 universal law of nature. Since the feeblest must 

 perish necessarily in the battle for existence, since 

 this is the immutable principle of the living world, 

 then the vae victis was of all that one could imagine 

 the most rational and most legitimate course. 



We can imagine the effect which this distorted 

 social Darwinism would have upon a man of 

 power like Bismarck. H. Lichtenberger, analysing 

 his character, says: 



