402 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



the balance of power Mr. Kidd admits. But it remains to be 

 seen, firstly, whether this shifting is due to the action of ethical 

 influences ; and, secondly, whether the result attained has been 

 wholly beneficial, in the sense of admitting an ever-increasing 

 number of individuals to the struggle for existence on equal 

 terms. 



To take the second point first, it is obvious that, once we 

 admit selection to be the sole factor in the progressive evolution 

 alike of species and societies — and in the first part of this work 

 we endeavoured to show that selection is the law governing the 

 development of the whole organic world — we must admit, not 

 only the beneficence, but also the necessity, of the struggle for 

 existence ; for without conflict there would be no selection. 

 It is thus to the highest interest of the race that as many indi- 

 viduals as possible be subjected to a sifting process, to the 

 action of selection, which, eliminating the unfit and preserving 

 the fit, secures the survival of individuals capable of maintaining 

 the biological level of the race in general. But is the tendency 

 of social evolution, as at present discernible, to admit an ever- 

 increasing number of individuals to the struggle on equal terms ? 

 Our consideration of the humanistic tendencies of social evolu- 

 tion at the present day showed that the actual tendency of 

 social evolution is to favour the weak at the expense of the 

 strong. The weak organism has its life artificially prolonged, 

 and is allowed to reproduce ; the generations to come being thus 

 sacrificed in order to preserve a life often useless to its pos- 

 sessor, and always worse than useless to those which it engenders. 

 And this mistaken view of humanitarianism, which finds expres- 

 sion in a certain tendency of social legislation in all European 

 countries, has other consequences, which, if they are indirect, 

 are not less harmful to the community at large. In the first 

 place, it is obvious that the more actions are artificially per- 

 formed for citizens by the State, the less will be the activity of 

 the citizens ; and not only will incapable members of the com- 



