700 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



overmuch wicked or foolish generally 

 meets an early fate. The law of natural 

 selection is, therefore, manifestly at 

 work in controlling the moral and in- 

 tellectual development of society; and 

 if, in spite of this, there is a much wider 

 variation between human individuals 

 than obtains in the lower orders of ani- 

 mal life, that is just what, considering 

 the extreme complexity of the social 

 organism, we should have expected. 



TEE COACH OF CIVILIZATION. 



The author of that popular book 

 " Looking Backward" has given a graph- 

 ic description of present-day civilization, 

 as he understands it, by comparing it to 

 a coach in or on which the wealthy 

 classes ride while the working classes 

 drag it over heavy roads and up steep 

 ascents. It would almost seem as if 

 the author had been more concerned to 

 write what the French call une telle 

 page than to represent things as they 

 really are, otherwise the picture would 

 have been somewhat differently drawn. 

 Nothing is told us of the means where- 

 by seats on the coach are obtained nor 

 of the means by which they are lost. 

 There is no hint that frugality, prudence, 

 self-control, readiness of resource, and 

 social usefulness, are in general the qual- 

 ities by which men rise to competence, 

 or that it is the lack of these qualities, 

 and often of any disposition to possess 

 them, that consigns some men to the 

 labor of the rope. We do not read that 

 the man who is on the coach has often 

 helped to make better conditions of life 

 for multitudes of his fellow-men, nor is 

 a hint dropped that many of those who 

 get the credit of riding are really them- 

 selves laboring hard to help the vehicle 

 forward. There is nothing in the whole 

 description that answers to the case of 

 those intelligent, efficient, and self-re- 

 specting workers who, without reaping 

 wealth, obtain a large measure of com- 

 fort and ample means of self-improve- 

 ment. We get no hint of social vices 



that do more to make the lot of their 

 victims difficult, if not hopeless, than 

 anything in the constitution of society. 

 Mr. Bellamy might, had he chosen, have 

 introduced these points. They are so 

 obvious that he could not have over- 

 looked them, and we must therefore 

 conclude that he omitted them on liter- 

 ary grounds. The way to be tiresome, 

 said Voltaire, is to say everything ; and 

 Mr. Bellamy did not want to be tire- 

 some, so he simply gave us a picture of 

 a coach crowded with idlers and dragged 

 by the industrious under the lash of 

 hunger. Well, Mr. Bellamy has pro- 

 duced the effects he aimed at. His coach 

 has been very widely talked about and 

 considerably admired ; so perhaps now 

 he might take into consideration those 

 who are not so impatient of details as 

 to prefer a misleading comparison, 

 dashed off with a few bold strokes, to a 

 more correct one carefully elaborated. 

 We know he could make another coach 

 for us if he tried, and we should very 

 much like him to try. 



Far be it from us to say that society 

 as we see it to-day has reached the acme 

 of perfection ; there is much in it we 

 are deeply persuaded that is faulty and 

 that might be improved. We want 

 greater economy in production and — no 

 one need hesitate to say— greater equal- 

 ity in distribution. We want a greater 

 sense of social responsibility on the part 

 of the holders of wealth, and we want 

 especially a diminution of the senseless 

 passion for display. These things we 

 believe are now on the way, though it 

 might be hard to discern the signs of the 

 one last mentioned. Society is becom- 

 ing every day more closely knit in the 

 bonds of a common sympathy ; the self- 

 respect of the average man is daily in- 

 creasing and public opinion is becoming 

 at once more rational and more humane. 

 What we have chiefly to contend with 

 to-day is not the idleness or extrava- 

 gance of a few, but a general lack of 

 knowledge as to the best methods of so- 

 cial co-operation. Where Mr. Bellamy 



