RECAPITULATION 469 



economic development to the entrance into the lists of combat 

 of the masses ; who have hitherto, to a considerable extent, been 

 precluded from even engaging in the strife. 



It is at this point that there arises an apparent contradiction, 

 which has been insisted on by Mr. Benjamin Kidd. What is the 

 factor which determines this widening of the sphere of compe- 

 tition so beneficial to the race ? For those who, for economic 

 reasons, are interested in restricting to the utmost a competition 

 in which their purely artificial position would in all probabiUty 

 be shaken, there is no rational sanction for extending the limits 

 of the competition ; because their personal interest in the present 

 must, from a purely rational standpoint, outweigh any non- 

 personal interest of the race in a hypothetical future. But, on 

 the other hand, the figures which we quoted concerning the 

 augmentation of social wealth, and its distribution among an 

 ever-increasing number of persons, are in themselves sufficient 

 to show that the standard of life of the community is being 

 raised, and that what were once the domains of privilege are 

 being thrown open to a growing host of new-comers ; in a word, 

 that the sphere of competition within society is being widened, 

 and competition thereby becoming ever keener. Now, if there 

 be no rational sanction for the realisation of a condition essential 

 to race progress, where are we to find the force which has deter- 

 miaed this realisation ? According to Mr. Kidd, this force 

 is none other than the ethical influence of the religion peculiar 

 to Western civiHsation, with the origin and development of 

 which it is so intimately boimd up. But we saw that the sphere 

 of action of altruistic influences in social evolution is very 

 hmited even now ; and, further, that it is impossible to seek the 

 motive power of a development which must result in an exten- 

 sion and accentuation of individual conflict in an ethical influence 

 diametrically contrary to the nature of this development ; for 

 individual conflict necessarily implies a condition of things 

 which is the antithesis to altruism. This apparent dilemma is 



