THE CONSTRUCTOR 



235 



to more than one correspondent, " to put the Christian 

 doctrine, that Satan is the Prince of this world, upon 

 a scientific foundation " ! The main thesis was briefly 

 sketched in an essay, published five years previously 

 (in 1888), on the "Struggle for Existence in Human 

 Society," and appropriately reprinted in the volume 

 containing the Romanes Lecture. 



In the strict sense of the word " nature," it denotes 

 the sum of the phenomenal world, of that which has 

 been, and is, and will be ; and society, like art, is 

 therefore a part of nature. But it is convenient to 

 distinguish those parts of nature in which man plays 

 the part of immediate cause, as something apart; and, 

 therefore, society, like art, is usefully to be considered 

 as distinct from nature. It is the more desirable, and 

 even necessary, to make this distinction, since society 

 differs from nature in having a definite moral object; 

 whence it comes about that the course shaped by the 

 ethical man — the member of society or citizen — 

 necessarily runs counter to that which the non-ethical 

 man — the primitive savage, or man as a mere mem- 

 ber of the animal kingdom — tends to adopt. The 

 latter fights out the struggle for existence to the bitter 

 end, like any other animal ; the former devotes his 

 best energies to the object of setting limits to the 

 struggle. . . . The ideal of the ethical man is 

 to limit his freedom of action to a sphere in which he 

 does not interfere with the freedom of others ; he 

 seeks the common weal as much as his own, and in- 

 deed, as an essential part of his own welfare. Peace 

 is both end and means with him ; and he founds his 

 life on a more or less complete self-restraint, which 

 is the negation of the unlimited struggle for existence. 



