Supplement to ''Mature^' April 24, 1902. 



and the present are alike subordinated." In the struggle, 

 " efticiency in the future" (described as "projected 

 efficiency") "is the determining quality," and so the 

 future controls the present. 



There are two epochs of social development. In the 

 former of the two, the existing social organisation counted 

 for everything. In the second, "society, with all its 

 interests in the present, is subordinated to its own 

 future." " Projected efficiency '' is the secret of success 

 and of progress. The want of it causes stagnation. In 

 the city States of ancient t.reece and in ancient Rome, 

 the present was omnipotent. Marcus Aurelius, noble 

 character as he was, represented a decaying system, 

 bounded by the present. With the spread of Christianity, 

 the horizon enlarges and the future becomes predominant. 

 •'The visions of Christianity can never be closed within 

 any limitations of the State or of political consciousness." 

 Turning to politics, we find in England at the time of the 

 Revolution a looking beyond the present to the future. 

 But during a later period our philosophers professed 

 creeds that left out of consideration everything that lay 

 beyond the horizon of the present. Bentham, Ricardo, 

 Mill, Herbert Spencer are interested only in living 

 individuals and their relation to the State. On the other 

 hand, Burke says that society is a partnership "between 

 those who are living and those who are dead and those 

 who are to be born." In Germany, progress is hampered 

 by a frankly materialistic philosophy, the philosophy of 

 Marx, which takes no thought of generations yet to come. 

 Among English-speaking peoples there is a conviction 

 that "the principles of the Democracy which our civilisa- 

 tion is destined to realise are incompatible with a 

 materialistic interpretation of history." We look to the 

 future and not to the present. Hence the marvellous 

 progress of our race, in spite of the fact that the average 

 Englishman is averse to liberal ideas. An age of the 

 free-est competition isbeginning,fromwhichimmeasurable 

 results may be expected. The present astounding expan- 

 sion of the English-speaking race is as nothing compared 

 with what is to be. And this magnificent future will be 

 due to free competition, which will not be disgraced by 

 the oppression of the workman by the capitalist, or by 

 the barbarism of our present commercial methods. The 

 predominance of the future will make all this possible. 

 The evolutionary process will be projected altogether 

 beyond the present. 



All these theories seem to have their origin in Mr. 

 Kidd's strong anti-materialistic convictions. His formula 

 of the future (to propose a brief name for it), which 

 forms the central doctrine of his creed, serves to unite his 

 anti-materialism with the theory of evolution, which, as 

 he maintains, must now be the foundation of all philoso- 

 phy. .■\ formula that embraces evolution and trans- 

 cendental anti-materialism must, of necessity, be very 

 vague. The predominance of the future is, therefore, 

 stated in very indefinite terms, so that it may include 

 things which are essentially dift'erent. Thus, evolution 

 regards the future of the race— unborn generations— as 

 of the utmost importance. Christianity puts the future 

 life of the individual above his present life. These two 

 views in a mist of grand phrases are put down as the 

 same, or at least as different aspects of the same, truth. 

 The treatment of philosophical systems seems to involve 

 NO. 1695, VOL. 65J 



the same confusion of thought. For evolution, Mr. Kidd 

 says, the unborn generations are everything. Evolution, 

 as we all know, is, largely, independent and will go on 

 whatever our philosophy may be ; and yet the views of 

 this or that philosopher are treated as of supreme im- 

 portance, as if the fate of the nation to which he belonge 

 were involved in them. 



When we come to the most interesting and best- 

 written chapters, those in which modern trade and its 

 methods are described, there is again much confusion in 

 the theories which are built upon the facts. Competition, 

 especially in America, is more free than it has ever been 

 before. In the future, we are told, there will be still 

 greater freedom. Yet the fierceness of competition is to 

 be held in check by humane laws which will protect the 

 workman from oppression. Capital, too, will not be 

 allowed to exploit the nation for its own advantage. 

 This is an admirable ideal. But how is it to be com- 

 bined with a freedom of competition such as has never 

 been known before? Mr. Kidd does not help us here. 

 We are only told that to the English-speaking peoples, 

 free as they are from materialism, everything will be 

 possible. Here we may ask a question : — If anti- 

 materialism is the one secret of progress, how is it that 

 in the East, the birthplace of all the great religions, 

 stagnation is the rule ? 



We feel much the want of some sound biology. Mr. 

 Kidd adopts some of Weismann's most disputed theories, 

 such as that of the immortality of the unicellular 

 organisms. But other views of Weismann's which con- 

 flict with his own theories he says nothing about. 

 Weismann holds, for instance, that as soon as the stress 

 of natural selection is relaxed, a species begins to lose the 

 powers that it has gained. It degenerates. Now, this 

 era of free competition, seen at its best in the United 

 States, is really a time of slackening natural selection. 

 Children are cared for better than ever before, so that 

 many of the weakly survive. The deaf are so well 

 taught that they can make a living and marry, and so 

 leave deaf descendants. The competition, in fact, 

 whether between peoples or individuals, does not lead to 

 elimination. The conditions of life have grown softer, 

 and under such conditions there must be, if there is truth 

 in Weismann's contention, physical degeneration, though 

 it may be screened by the constant influx of numbers of 

 the more vigorous members of the European peoples into 

 the New World. On this subject Mr. Kidd does not 

 touch. Yet the tendency to physical degeneration, more 

 than any other phenomenon of our time, causes anxiety 

 to those who watch the drift of our modern civilisation. 



Again, as to the main idea of the book, how is it 

 possible that efficiency in the future, " projected effi- 

 ciency," can decide a struggle that has to be fought out 

 in the present ? It is true that some classes of animals, 

 having succeeded in one period in virtue of their 

 specialisation, have, probably because they were so 

 highly specialised, been unable to take a new line and 

 meet new demands made upon them in the succeeding 

 period. But, apparently, this is not what Mr. Kidd 

 means. His formula is made to refer to evolution as it 

 refers to systems of philosophy or to creeds in which the 

 supremely important future controls the present. He 

 owns that the contending races must fight their battles 



