DARWINISM AND MALTAUS. 2AM. 
justice and to mitigate them with mercy ; but to disobey them 
means prolonged and extended suffering, a lengthened lesson in 
the dear school of experience until we have learned rightly to 
obey. 
It is remarkable that the principles of Malthus were 
discovered not in the study of biology, with which he 
apparently had no acquaintance, but in the subject of poli- 
tical economy. It was reflection on the causes that hinder the 
progress of the human race to happiness that led him to 
consider the principle of population as affecting this subject. 
To apply it to the animal or still less to the vegetable creation 
seems never to have occurred to his mind. Natural history 
seems to have been quite outside his range of thought and 
interest. Now if his principles have been so fruitful when 
applied to subjects which are altogether outside the field of 
their discovery, how much more fruitful may we expect them 
to be if applied in that field in which they were discovered. 
This consideration becomes the more important, when it is 
observed that the whole trend of legislation, and of the thought 
which lies behind legislation, and both is its cause and gives it 
force, has been for a long period in a contrary direction. 
Increase of the sense of parental responsibility was the check 
on which Malthus relied for the evils of over-population ; 
modern legislation has done much and seems likely to do 
more to diminish the feeling of responsibility of parents for 
their offspring. Free education has been given ; free meals are 
being demanded, gratuitous feeding is to some extent given, 
and demands for further relief from parental responsibility 
seem likely to follow. All this is in direct opposition to what 
there is strong presumption at least to believe to be a law of 
nature. 
The phrases “survival of the fittest,” and “elimination of the 
unfit” were not invented by Malthus ; but they follow directly 
from his principles of population. Modern legislation, and 
indeed modern sentiment, without which legislation is power- 
less, have sought, and are still seeking to preserve the unfit and 
to encourage their multiplication. But the laws of nature will 
prove themselves too strong even for the strongest radical 
government, or the most plausible socialistic theory. The laws 
of nature will assert themselves in the end, even it may be by 
the destruction of our entire civilization. It is useless to 
complain of their harshness and severity. Nature is full of 
that which is harsh and severe. But we may do much, if we 
recognize them as facts, we may do very much to mitigate the 
