260 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 
perish,” — and repentance means turning from the “ pig-trough ” 
to the “ work-bench ”’ philosophy of life; turning from the ideal of 
“ sraceful consumption”? and “eminent leisure” to that of 
production, of the economizing of human energy, and of consump- 
tion not as an end but as a means to further production. 
This social theory, like all ‘‘ prophecies ” will meet with theoret- 
ical and practical opposition. It will be opposed on the latter 
side by those who have been taught by experience that sole 
emphasis on one phase of life is narrowing and deadening and who 
do not believe that a race can be evolved which can combine this 
excessive emphasis on the production of material goods and on 
reproduction, with emphasis on cultural values to the degree 
assumed by our author, and to the degree required to make his 
theory effective. It will be opposed on this side, too, by those 
who live to consume. 
On the theoretical side it is open to criticism along the following 
lines: — 
(x) It is logical and abstract and of value as a social philosophy 
in proportion as its premises are true, but even so, it is concerned 
too largely with “ by-and-large ” and “ in-the-long-run ”’ without 
sufficient regard to individual, concrete conditions. 
(2) It is built up on a rigid application to social progress of the 
neo-Darwinian formula for biological evolution and fails to be 
convincing just in proportion (a) as this formula fails to explain 
biological evolution, and (0) in proportion as this formula needs 
to be modified or is shown to be inapplicable to social evolution. 
(3) Over-emphasis is placed on the sovereign, territorial group 
as the sociological unit. There seems good reason for holding, 
on the contrary, that the sovereign group is not an end in itself, 
but only a means to the well-being of the largest possible number 
of individuals and it is by no means certain that this result can be 
attained only by the conflict between territorial groups. 
(4) In his desire to give prominence to the objective standard 
of the good, the right and the just, Professor Carver has denied all 
worth to motive as such; but a man’s attitude toward life, his 
ideal, his intelligent purpose are most potent factors in enabling 
him to find that place and do that task which shall prove most 
