y IN HUMAN SOCIETY. 211 



the best in exchange for their produce. If our 

 goods are inferior to those of our competitors, 

 there is no ground, compatible with the sanity of 

 the buyers, which can be alleged, why they should 

 not prefer the latter. And, if that result should 

 ever take place on a large and general scale, five 

 or six millions of us would soon have nothing to 

 eat. We know what the cotton famine was; and 

 we can therefore form some notion of what a 

 dearth of customers would be. 



Judged by an ethical standard, nothing can be 

 less satisfactory than the position in which we find 

 ourselves. In a real, though incomplete, degree 

 we have attained the condition of peace which is 

 the main object of social organization; and, for 

 argument's sake, it may be assumed that we de- 

 sire nothing but that which is in itself innocent 

 and praiseworthy — namely, the enjoyment of the 

 fruits of honest industry. And lo! in spite of 

 ourselves, we are in reality engaged in an inter- 

 necine struggle for existence with our presumably 

 no less peaceful and well-meaning neighbours. 

 "We seek peace and we do not ensue it. The 

 moral nature in us asks for no more than is com- 

 patible with the general good; the non-moral na- 

 ture proclaims and acts upon that fine old Scot- 

 tish family motto, " Thou shalt starve ere I want." 

 Let us be under no illusions, then. So long as 

 unlimited multiplication goes on, no social organi- 

 zation which has ever been devised, or is likely to 



