CHAPTER III 



SOCIALISM AND SCIENCE 



Having arrived at this point of our study, it may be well to 

 pause a little and consider the conclusions at which we have 

 arrived. In the first place, we have seen that the law governing 

 the evolution of the whole organic world is the law of selection ; 

 among species, with the exception of those few modifications 

 efEected by the direct action of the environment, every trans- 

 formation which is hereditary is the work of selection. And we 

 have also noted that the idea of natural selection, as it first 

 occurred to Darwin and Wallace, has been completed and 

 rendered more profound by the idea of germinal selection, due 

 to Weismann. The admirable work of Weismann has shown 

 us that the struggle for existence begins among the primordial 

 hving elements, which constitute the basis of all life ; and, from 

 this beginning onwards, as we follow the general transformation 

 of fife and the growth of species, we see everywhere the same 

 straggle, begotten of the same fundamental conditions of exist- 

 ence — ^namely, that more individuals are born than can sur- 

 vive ; the result of the struggle, under normal conditions, being 

 always the sole survival of those best adapted to the circum- 

 stances of life. As we proceed from the domain of the lower 

 organic forms, and follow the course of evolution through the 

 history of human society, the same conditions present them- 

 selves ; and a closer scrutiny of this eternal conflict which we 

 see all around shows us that it is necessary, in order to maintain 

 a standard once attained and to ensure unbroken progress. 



467 30—2 



