142 The Special Sociological Errors 



uals who are most gifted are able to insure their 



economic welfare, while the less gifted are not. 



"Positive selection takes place in human societies 



. by natural death, and the mortality among the 



poorer classes is much higher than among the well- 



* to-do. Of course this factor of natural mortality, 



which is affected by economic selection, is much 



more powerful than war, since it acts constantly, 



while the cataclysm of selective homicide acts 



only at rare intervals. 



The more rapidly the death of the weak-minded 

 and incapable takes place, the more rapid will be 

 the positive selection, and other things being equal, 

 the more society would be composed uniquely of the 

 capable and would tend to become more perfect. 

 But the higher the mortality, the more common it 

 is and the less it attracts attention. As a result 

 this natural mortality, which takes place every day 

 and all about us, does not affect the social con- 

 sciousness. In other words, it is one of the slow 

 and invisible factors which those who are hypno- 

 tized by the catastrophic theory of social progress 

 are imable to perceive. 



Since they are compelled to abandon the unten- 

 able ground of individual selection by war, the mili- 

 tarists fall back upon the theory of collective 

 selection. Thus Professor Karl Pearson states 

 the doctrine of collective selection : 



History shows me one way and one way only, in 

 which a high state of civilization has been produced, 



