316 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



to the stock of the world's treasure ; it will exist, even as a 

 paralytic exists among the bustle and activity of the surrounding 

 persons ; but it will be worthless to the world — ^worthless morally 

 and worthless commercially, and its decay, perhaps slow, will 

 be inglorious, if not infamous. Such is to-day the position of 

 Turkey ; which in the sixteenth century menaced Vienna, and 

 which now exists only because of differences among those who 

 would fain devour it. Such to-day is also the position of the 

 once-proud Egyptian civilisation ; and such is also the position 

 of Morocco, whose name five centuries ago was the terror of 

 Western Europe. 



In the domain of organic life progress is the universal law. 

 Eegression implies decay, and life never remains stationary for 

 indefinite periods. In the domain of sociology it is the same. 

 The race or the nation which ceases to expand, which has ex- 

 hausted all its force of expansion, is doomed, sooner or later, 

 to disappear. This is one of the great lessons of history ; and 

 doubtless it is the great lesson taught also by those civilisations 

 which flourished and disappeared without leaving any historical 

 record of their life and vicissitudes. But if the expansive force 

 of a race is to be maintained, it is necessary, as we have said, 

 that the race should have a large majority of persons possessing 

 well-developed social instincts and biological fitness. 



Among the nomadic and pastoral races the law of natural 

 selection operates with full force. Among the hunters those 

 members of the race who are less swift or less keen of vision are 

 eliminated ; and the working of this law has the result of main- 

 taining the whole race at a very high biological level. As 

 civilisation advances, the conditions tend to become more and 

 more favourable to the reproduction of individuals possessing 

 less biological efficiency ; and to a superficial observer it may 

 seem as if there were a certain necessary antagonism between 

 biological efficiency and social organisation. This, however, is 

 not really the case ; for we have seen that the efficiency of a race 



