HUMAN POPULATION IN THE FUTURE. 507 



and the raising of all its habitable parts into the highest 

 state of culture — after having brought all processes for the 

 satisfaction of human wants to perfection — after having, at 

 the same time, developed the intellect into complete com- 

 petency for its work, and the feelings into complete fitness 

 for social life — after having done all this, the pressure of 

 population, as it gradually finishes its work, must gradually 

 bring itself to an end. 



| 377. In closing the argument let us not overlook the 

 self-sufficingness of those universal processes by which the 

 results reached thus far have been wrought out, and which 

 may be expected to work out these future results. 



Evolution under all its aspects, general and special, is an 

 advance towards equilibrium. We have seen that the theo- 

 retical limit towards which the integration and differentia- 

 tion of every aggregate advances, is a state of balance be- 

 tween all the forces to which its parts are subject, and 

 the forces which its parts oppose to them {First Prin. § 130). 

 And we have seen that organic evolution is a progress 

 towards a moving equilibrium completely adjusted to en- 

 vironing actions. 



It has been also pointed out that, in civilized Man, there is 

 going on a new class of equilibrations — those between his ac- 

 tions and the actions of the societies he forms (First Prin. 

 § 135). Social restraints and requirements are ever altering 

 his activities and by consequence his nature ; and as fast as his 

 nature is altered, social restraints and requirements undergo 

 more or less re- adjustment. Here the organism and the con- 

 ditions are both modifiable ; and by successive conciliations 

 of the two, there is effected a progress towards equilibrium. 



More recently we have seen that in every species, there 

 establishes itself an equilibrium of an involved kind between 

 the total race-destroying forces and the total race-preserving 

 forces — an equilibrium which implies that where the ability 

 to maintain individual life is small, the ability to propagate 



