CONSCIOUSNESS FACILITATES ADAPTATION 543 



as fast as it has invented new methods for combating old ones. 

 It has constantly and uninterruptedly modified the relations of 

 the difEerent races of the human species to each other, thereby 

 exterminating some and strengthening others. The modifica- 

 tions of the environment produced by changes in the relation 

 of one race to the other races have frequently been too rapid 

 for the more stable races to adapt themselves to. Under condi- 

 tions such as these it is evident that consciousness is a most 

 valuable instrument for effecting rapid re-adaptation. 



The ceaseless interaction of heterogeneous mentalities, at the 

 same time that it has developed intrasocial relations, has de- 

 veloped also the moral sentiments of humanity. MoraUty has 

 evolved fari passu with consciousness, and, like the latter, 

 it is an instrument for bringing about ever more complete 

 harmony between civilised man and his surroundings. The 

 inferior races of mankind have a less evolved consciousness 

 and a less evolved moraUty ; and to the semi-absence of these 

 indispensable instruments of adaptation we may attribute the 

 lack of adaptability of these races. But lesser adaptiveness 

 means extermination ; and the extermination of inferior races 

 may in each case be attributed to a change in the environing 

 conditions, change which found these races unprepared, and to 

 which they were imable to re-adapt themselves with sufficient 

 rapidity. Those races which, as Bagehot remarked, broke down 

 the barriers of custom and tradition, and did not let themselves 

 become subsequently entangled in a polity originally indis- 

 pensable for them, must have been possessed of a highly evolved 

 consciousness and a highly evolved morality. 



Thus, although the " aim " of social evolution be not primarily 

 a moral one, nevertheless, adaptation to the constantly changing 

 social environment requires morality as a condition precedent. 

 Social efficiency impUes by definition moral efficiency. The 

 society which is best adapted to the conditions of existence is 

 that which contains the greatest number of persons mth wdl- 



