SELECTION: ORGANIC AND SOCIAL 215 



own constitution of strengthening their position 

 in the struggle for existence, but man has much. 

 He gets to himself appUances and instruments, 

 engines and machines, and the dwarf bends the 

 Titan to his will. 



(2) If a number of unsociable men were ship- 

 wrecked on a Robinson Crusoe island and Uved 

 each for himself, a more or less natural selection 

 might occur. In human societary forms, however, 

 there is so much division of labour that, all social 

 sentiment apart, many get a chance whom Nature 

 would not tolerate. As a simple illustration, we 

 may note that the extremely short-sighted are 

 by no means excluded from having a successful 

 career. Even short-sighted dogs and horses sur- 

 vive in domestication. But in wild nature a 

 short-sighted vulture must perish ; it cannot get 

 spectacles. 



(3) Most animals have to get their own food 

 directly ; we cite as great rarities cases Hke that 

 of the slave-keeping ants, who not only have 

 their food collected but have literally to be fed 

 by their minions. But in mankind the majority 

 get their bread and butter in exchange for some- 

 thing else. Thus types that could not survive 

 in open nature flourish bravely. 



(4) Most animals have no inheritance outside 

 of themselves, but in ' mankind there are many 

 kinds of external legacies. It is only in a very 

 literal sense that the millionaire's son can say, 

 " Naked came I forth," and an inherited title 

 may save a man in the social struggle for existence 

 when neither his body nor his brains could avail. 



Some Natural Selection Remains. — ^While 

 much of the selection that takes place in human 



