282 Darwin's Theory of Social Progress 



Extinction of Races" to a study of this decisive 

 factor. 



Darwin points out that the effect of war would 

 be a reversed selection, since the bravest men, 

 who are always willing to come to the front in the 

 war and freely to risk their lives for others, would 

 on the average perish in larger numbers than others 

 and would leave no offspring to inherit their noble 

 nature. He even points out how militarism, by 

 preventing co-operation and the formation of 

 larger political units, may offset high intellectual 

 powers, such as those possessed by the old Greeks. 

 The true cause of their downfall he traces to the 

 weakening of the moral bonds : 



The Greeks may have retrograded from a want of 

 coherence between the many small states, from the 

 small size of their whole country, from the practice 

 of slavery, or from extreme sensuality; for they did 

 not succumb until "they were enervated and corrupt 

 to the very core." The western nations of Europe, 

 who now so immeasurably surpass their former sav- 

 age progenitors, and stand at the summit of civi- 

 lization, owe little or none of their superiority to 

 direct inheritance from the old Greeks, though they 

 owe much to the written works of that wonderful 

 people. ^ 



And in a letter to his friend Lyell he emphasizes 

 the fact that the history of the Greeks verifies 

 his theories of social progress: 



* The Descent oj Man, p. 157. 



