428 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



whicli is not peculiar to England, is the fruit of the philosophy 

 of the eighteenth century, and especially of the French Revolu- 

 tion of 1789 ; and it is a doctrine long since preached by the 

 school of economists with which are associated the names of 

 Turgot, Adam Smith, Ricardo, J. S. Mill, Bastiat — ^to mention 

 only these — and its quintessence and logical conclusion is to 

 be found in the theories of modem individualist anarchism, in 

 the doctrines of Max Stirner. But the extraordinary increase in 

 the rate of suicide alone should surely make us pause and re- 

 consider the situation. The very fact that such a large and 

 constant number of persons, whose worldly position is not such 

 as to afiord any explanation of such a desperate act, should 

 nevertheless commit suicide, shows us that the individuahst 

 doctrine is not so satisfying as it appears on the surface. We 

 have elevated the individual almost to divine rank ; and yet the 

 individual thus exalted, thus taught to consider himself as the 

 measure of all things, finds that he does not suffice for this 

 purpose. The individual, if he is to find life worth living, must 

 find an aim precisely which shall exceed his individuahty. For 

 a few, a chosen few — for those whom Nietzsche designated as 

 the Super-Men — ^this aim, although exceeding the individu- 

 ality, may yet be inherent in it ; so, for instance, with a Raphael 

 or with the unknown creator of the Apollo Belvedere, who are 

 capable, through their own transcendent genius, of imparting 

 a supreme value to life. But for the majority the aim of life 

 must be exterior to life ; it must dominate life with all the force 

 and prestige of a categorical imperative. Give to the individual 

 only his own individuality as the aim of life, and life will be 

 found valueless. In life the sum of misery exceeds the sum of 

 joy, and the insatiabiUty which is a characteristic of the psycho- 

 logical as well as of the physiological structuie will not be 

 satisfied by an aim which does not transcend the organism. 



Such an extra-individual aim can only be the result of an 

 integrated society, for an integrated society alone holds together 



