SELECTIVE VALUE OF WAR 317 



always depends, in virtue of the fundamental law of life itself, 

 on its power of expansion ; and a race which has exhausted its 

 power of expansion must decay. But obviously the expansive 

 power of a race can only be maintained on condition that its 

 members, in addition to having highly developed social instincts, 

 are likewise organically fit. And should it appear as if the organisa- 

 tion and growing stability of a society are in opposition to the 

 maintenance of its biological fitness, the truth is that the line of 

 evolution pursued by that society has been illusory ; and that its 

 apparent stability is in reality a condition of instability, pregnant 

 with dangers for the future of the race. Athens affords us an 

 excellent example of this ; her social culture was admirable, her 

 institutions were attractive in a high degree ; and yet we see that 

 this apparently perfect organisation concealed vices fatal to the 

 continued existence of the race. 



During the earlier stages of social evolution war plays a very 

 important part in the ehmination of the unfit and weaker 

 members of society. When one savage tribe attacks another, 

 the conflict is decided in favour of the one which contains the 

 greater number of individuals possessing courage, good eyesight, 

 swiftness, cunning, bodily strength, and endurance ; so that we 

 may say with truth that conflict plays here a most valuable 

 selective role. Even when we ascend much higher in the scale 

 of civilisation, we find war to be a useful factor in race progress. 

 As Bagehot writes : " War both needs and generates certain 

 virtues — ^not the highest, but what may be called the preliminary 

 virtues : valour, veracity, the spirit of obedience, the habit of 

 discipline. Any of these, and of others like them, when possessed 

 by a nation, and no matter how generated, will give them a 

 military advantage, and make them more likely to stay in the 

 race of nations. The Romans probably had as much of these 

 efficacious virtues as any race of the ancient world — perhaps as 

 much as any race in the modem world too. And the success of 

 the nations which possess these martial virtues has been the 

 great means by which their continuance has been secured in the 



