56 PROLEGOMENA 



sidered as a whole, the colony is a composite unit intro- 

 duced into the old state of nature; and, thenceforward, 

 a competitor in the struggle for existence, to conquer or 

 be vanquished. 



Under the conditions supposed, there is no doubt of 

 the result, if the work of the colonists be carried out 

 energetically and with intelligent combination of all 

 their forces. On the other hnnd, if they are slothful, 

 stupid, and careless; or if they waste their energies in 

 contests with one another, the chances are that the 

 old state of nature will have the best of it. The native 

 savage will destroy the immigrant civilized man; of the 

 English animals and plants some will be extirpated by 

 their indigenous rivals, others will pass into the feral 

 state and themselves become components of the state 

 of nature. In a few decades, all other traces of the 

 settlement will have vanished. 



VI. 



Let us now imagine that some administrative au- 

 thority, as far superior in power and intelligence to men, 

 as men are to their cattle, is set over the colony, charged 

 to deal with its human elements in such a manner as to 

 assure the victory of the settlement over the antagonistic 

 influences of the state of nature in which it is set down. 

 He would proceed in the same fashion as that in which 

 the gardener dealt with his garden. In the first place, 

 he would, as far as possible, put a stop to the influence 

 of external competition by thoroughly extirpating and 

 excluding the native rivals, whether men, beasts, or 

 plants. And our administrator would select his human 

 agents, with a view to his ideal of a successful colony, 



