True Causes of Progress 279 



advantages of abandoning destructive competition 

 in favour of co-operation and alliance, this factor 

 can play only an unimportant role among civilized 

 people : 



With highly civilized nations continued progress 

 depends in a subordinate degree on natural selection; 

 for such nations do not supplant and exterminate 

 one another as do savage tribes.* 



The true causes of progress, though very difficult 

 to determine, are to be found in intellectual and 

 moral qualities, according to Darwin: 



It is very difficult to say why one civilized nation ' 

 rises, becomes more powerful, and spreads more 

 widely, than another; or why the same nation pro- . 

 gresses more quickly at one time than at another. 

 We can only say that it depends on an increase in , 

 the actual number of the population, on the number 

 of the men endowed with high intellectual and moral ^ 

 faculties, as well as on their standard of excellence.* 



It is these same intellectual and moral qualities 

 which constitute the survival factors in the struggle 

 between civilized and barbarous nations: 



At the present day civilized nations are every- 

 where supplanting barbarous nations, excepting 

 where the climate opposes a deadly barrier; and 

 they succeed mainly, though not exclusively, through 

 their arts, which are the products of the intellect.'^ 



' The Descent of Man, p. 158-59. 'Idem, p. 156. 



» Idem, p. 144. 



