x PREFACE 



The world was prepared to believe much more easily in Dar- 

 win's theory of biological evolution than it is today prepared to 

 believe in a similarly definite doctrine of social evolution. It is 

 true that Darwin's theory ran counter to certain traditional 

 theological beliefs of that day. The real concept of social evolu- 

 tion will run counter to much deeper currents of belief and tradi- 

 tion that still persist in the world in this twentieth century. It 

 will necessitate a complete reorganization of our theories of 

 morals, and of most of the ideals of the cultured classes. When 

 it is stated, for example, by a great biological evolutionist, that 

 nature is non-moral, or that one is not able to discern a moral 

 order of the universe, the issue is pretty squarely drawn and the 

 fundamental conflict of ideas is very clearly presented. It liter- 

 ally means that the person who makes such a remark is not yet 

 prepared to apply the method of evolution to morals, social ideals 

 and religious concepts. 



The method of evolution is not simply a recognition that things 

 go through certain processes of development. Many people 

 imagine themselves to be moral evolutionists when they admit 

 that moral ideals change and develop. They are not real evolu- 

 tionists until they are willing to recognize that the processes of 

 natural selection, of trial and rejection, of extermination and 

 survival apply to moral principles and social ideals as well as to 

 biological forms. To say that nature is non-moral is merely to 

 say that one is not able to see that nature recognizes what one 

 has been taught to believe to be moral. To say that one cannot 

 discern a moral order of the universe, is merely to say that one 

 cannot perceive that the order of the universe harmonizes with 

 what one has believed to be moral. Until one is prepared to face 

 about and say that nature is moral and that if it does not har- 

 monize with what we have previously believed to be moral, that 

 is a demonstration that our ideas of morality have been wrong, 

 or that if he cannot discern a harmony between the order of the 

 universe and his system of morals, that is a demonstration that 

 his system of morals is wrong, he is not a true evolutionist. In 

 other words, one must admit that whatever the order of the 

 universe is, that is the moral order. This will prepare him for 



