472 Darwinism and Sociology 
fact, they yet lay stress on the point that it is a natural fact. To the 
peace party Dragomirov’s objection is urged that its attempts are 
contrary to the fundamental laws of nature, and that no sea wall can 
hold against breakers that come with such gathered force. 
But in yet another quarter Darwinism was represented as opposed 
to philanthropic intervention. The defenders of the orthodox political 
economy found in it support for their tenets. Since in the organic 
world universal struggle is the condition of progress, it seemed 
obvious that free competition must be allowed to reign unchecked in 
the economic world. Attempts to curb it were in the highest degree 
imprudent. The spirit of Liberalism here seemed in conformity with 
the trend of nature : in this respect, at least, contemporary naturalism, 
offspring of the discoveries of the ninéteenth century, brought rein- 
forcements to the individualist doctrine, begotten of the speculations 
of the eighteenth: but only, it appeared, to turn mankind away for 
ever from humanitarian dreams. Would those whom such conclusions 
repelled be content to oppose to nature’s imperatives only the pro- 
tests of the heart? There were some who declared, like Brunetiére, 
that the laws in question, valid though they might be for the animal 
kingdom, were not applicable to the human. And so a return was 
made to the classic dualism. This indeed seems to be the line that 
Huxley took, when, for instance, he opposed to the cosmic process 
an ethical process which was its reverse. 
But the number of thinkers whom this antithesis does not satisfy 
grows daily. Although the pessimism which claims authorisation 
from Darwin’s doctrines is repugnant to them, they still are unable 
to accept the dualism which leaves a gulf between man and nature. 
And their endeavour is to link the two by showing that while Darwin’s 
laws obtain in both kingdoms, the conditions of their application are 
not the same: their forms, and, consequently, their results, vary with 
the varying mediums in which the struggle of living beings takes 
place, with the means these beings have at disposal, with the ends 
even which they propose to themselves. 
Here we have the explanation of the fact that among determined 
opponents of war partisans of the “struggle for existence” can be 
found : there are disciples of Darwin in the peace party. Novicow, 
for example, admits the “combat universel” of which Le Dantec! 
speaks; but he remarks that at different stages of evolution, at 
different stages of life the same weapons are not necessarily employed. 
Struggles of brute force, armed hand to hand conflicts, may have been 
a necessity in the early phases of human societies. Nowadays, 
although competition may remain inevitable and indispensable, it 
can assume milder forms. Economic rivalries, struggles between 
1 Les Luttes entre Sociétés humaines et leurs phases successives, Paris, 1893. 
