Social Habits Give Man Dominance 275 



The intellectual powers, and especially articulate 

 language, on which his wonderful advancement has 

 mainly depended, have been developed as the result 

 of his social habits. The advantages of his cor- 

 poreal structure, especially his erect position and 

 his hands, have been valuable only as they have 

 been directed by the intellect, so that man's 

 dominant position in the world, in the last analysis, 

 is due to his social habits. The moral law, which 

 is based on these social habits, and is the cementing 

 force which holds society together, thus becomes, 

 in the true Darwinian theory, the central and most 

 important factor of social evolution. 



As soon as we enter the social domain then, the 

 struggle against the physical environment changes 

 its form. Short-sighted selfishness tends to de- 

 feat its own end because of the strife which it en- 

 genders, which makes co-operation and indeed all 

 society impossible. If any of the advantages of 

 association are lost the society falls to a lower 

 plane of evolution and the individual who is a part 

 of this society falls with it. As Darwin says : 



Selfish and contentious people will not cohere, and 

 without coherence nothing can be effected. ^ 



Indeed, an enlightened selfishness would now 

 lead a member of society to do many things which 

 from a short-sighted point of view would appear 

 to be against his own interest. Darwin describes 

 how selfishness itself may lead to an increase of 



' The Descent oj Man, p. 145. 



