242 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



pagation of nihilistic doctrines. It is not merely practical nihilism 

 under the form of suicide which is progressing ; but also theoretical 

 nihilism under all those forms of anti-vital philosophy which seek 

 to reduce life to a minimum by reducing struggle and action to 

 a minimum. For, let it be noted, it is not conflict per se which 

 is perilous to social integration. On the contrary, conflict is as 

 necessary for the evolution of the higher forms of society as it is 

 for the evolution of the higher forms of animal hfe. As Mr. 

 Benjamin Kidd, in his admirable work on the Principles of 

 Western Civilisation, has pointed out, our civilisation is an organic 

 social type, developing under the stress of conflict like any other 

 form of life. But the individual life staked in that conflict must 

 possess a value such that the individual may deem the fight 

 worth figthing. And as individual life, in all its higher mani- 

 festations, is a product of social life, it is society which must give 

 to the individual effort an adequate sanction. If society is 

 unable to do this, the individual effort will remain without a 

 sanction adequate to it, and consequently the effort will tend 

 not to repeat itself. The individual will prefer peace to conflict, 

 repose to action. 



It is here that we find the explanation of that development of 

 humanitarianism, pacifism, communism, and other similar doc- 

 trines, which has proceeded pari passu with the development 

 of industrialism and the growth of the economic at the expense 

 of the political and ecclesiastical powers. The propagation of 

 these professions of theoretical nihilism demonstrates the fact 

 that society is gradually awakening to the consciousness of the 

 non-value of life, of the consequent uselessness of strife and effort. 

 When a nation is strong and healthy, it does not shrink from 

 conflict nor yearn for peace. Paciflsm, or the cessation of war 

 between the nations ; and Communism, or the cessation of war 

 within the nation itself, are symptoms of fatigue and discourage- 

 ment. Life is no longer worth the conflict, for life is but synony- 

 mous with suffering. 



