360 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



in the whole domain of organisms, from the Monera to Man. 

 This is the case. Everywhere we find conflict and strife, and 

 selection it is which ensures the survival of the best adapted. 

 Life is an endless and universal strife, and all life, in order to 

 maintain itself, must struggle, must expand, must live fvlly. 

 The idea of expansion is implied in the idea of life ; for the life 

 which does not expand must enter the path of regression. There 

 is nothing stationary in Nature ; there is either expansion or 

 regression. To cease to expand is to cease to live, for, as we 

 have said, regression entails decay and death. 



But cannot the human reason put an end to this state of con- 

 flict, cannot it bring about, for the higher forms of human 

 society, a cessation of strife ? The reply must be negative. 

 Only through the medium of conflict can selection operate ; 

 and if conflict be suppressed, the action of selection is rendered 

 impossible. What must be the result ? Stagnation and con- 

 sequent extinction. By the suppression of conflict human 

 society would suppress itself. 



It may be asked, Why, then, does selection operate, why is 

 conflict the universal law of life ? It is but a repetition, in 

 other words, of the question. Why should progress be a necessity 

 of all existence, why should life not be sufiered to remain 

 stationary, why should regression mean death ? These ques- 

 tions the scientist caimot answer, or he can answer them very 

 insufficiently. The conservation of the species requires the 

 unceasing intervention of selection, we are told. This is very 

 true ; but when the biologist has told us this, he has told us very 

 little. He has given, at the best, a secondary explanation. 

 Here we touch on the limits of biology ; and, if we wish to go 

 further, we must cross the borderland of metaphysics, or, if 

 we wish it, of religion. But this is not the place to examine 

 the question, and we have merely wished to show that, if such 

 a question is to be resolved, its solution must be sought for 

 elsewhere than in biological science. 



