SELECTION: ORGANIC AND SOCIAL 217 



such a low death-rate. The meaning of this is 

 that man has thrown off the natural selection 

 bondage, and insists on saying, and saying success- 

 fully, "I will live," when every natural chance 

 is against him.' 



The Dilemma of Civilisation. — The whole 

 trend of evolution since civilisation began has 

 been to throw off the yoke of natural selection, 

 and we are thus brought face to face with a for- 

 midable dilemma. It is impossible to return to a 

 natural selection regime, and yet we have not 

 been able to put an equally effective social selection 

 into operation. No one has stated the dilemma 

 (^more clearly than Herbert Spencer : " The law"" 

 1 that each creature shall take the benefits and 

 \ the evils of its own nature has been the law under 

 \ which Hf e has evolved thus far. Any arrangements 

 which, in a considerable degree, prevent superiority 

 from profiting by the rewards of superiority, or 

 shield inferiority from the evils it entails — any/ 

 arrangements which tend to make it as well to be/ 

 inferior as to be superior, are arrangements dia-l 

 J metrically opposed to the progress of organisation,! 

 / and the reaching of a higher Hfe." y 



^ The Extreme " Laissez-faire " Position. — In 

 face of this dilemma various suggestions have been 

 made. The first is that we should try to restrict 

 our kindness — a kindness which the future may 

 call cruelty. Plato, in his " Laws," recognised the 

 value of the " purgation of the State " which was 

 effected automatically by a stern struggle for 

 existence ; and to an interference with natural 

 selection, it is said, much of our sea of troubles is 



* See " The Kingdom of Man," by Sir E. Ray Lankester. (London, 

 1906.) 



