128 EX VI RIB US VIVIMUS. 



whole earth being peopled, man will become finally- 

 adjusted to his conditions by the limitation of his 

 expansion and the closer interaction of the members 

 of the human aggregate. In that almost perfect 

 civilization — where the greatest happiness for every 

 individual must finally be attained — will man's lon- 

 gevity be extended ? It does not seem improbable 

 that this may be the case : and certainly an average 

 longevity coincident with the potential is, under those 

 conditions, to be looked for. Men would no longer 

 • die of disappointment,'^ but would all attain eighty 

 or a hundred years. There is no apparent^ reason 

 why longevity should not increase beyond that limit, 

 and advance with advanced evolution, and the di- 

 minished expenditure implied in more complete 

 adjustment.^ 



> Buffon. 



' It has been asserted by a writer in • Eraser's Magazine' (September, 

 1869), and endorsed by another writer in the ' Spectator,' that civilization 

 acts so as to suspend Darwin's law in the case of man — the feeble and 

 diseased being allowed to breed, and the inferior often inheriting wealth 

 won by no merit of their own, which could not be the case were there 

 a free struggle for life and consorts. This is supposed to tend to shorten 

 the life of the species, and to produce general inferiority in civilized races. 

 But the argument is based oil fallacy. As we have pointed out, man is 

 a social animal, and the social virtues, which are urged by some persons 

 as causes of deterioration, are the very strength of the communities in 

 which they have been naturally and necessarily developed. That ' the 

 individual withers, and the wbrld is more and more,' as sung by Tennyson, 

 is profoundly true. Natural selection operates largely on communities of 

 men in place of individuals. That the fitter do survive, even in the case 

 of individuals, is, however, clear enough. The diseased and feeble who 

 propagate produce some healthy children, and these surely and certainly 



