PROLEGOMENA 61 



talists of physical force on whose resources they de- 

 pend. However^ I doubt whether even the keenest 

 judge of character, if he had before him a hundred boys 

 and girls under fourteen, could pick out, with the least 

 chance of success, those who should be kept, as certain 

 to be serviceable members of the polity, and those who 

 should be chloroformed, as equally sure to be stupid, 

 idle, or vicious. The "points" of a good or of a bad 

 citizen are really far harder to discern than those of a 

 puppy or a short-horn calf; many do not show them- 

 selves before the practical difficulties of life stimulate 

 manhood to full exertion. And by that time the mis- 

 chief is done. The evil stock, if it be one, has had time 

 to multiply, and selection is nullified. 



IX. 



I have other reasons for fearing that this logical ideal 

 of evolutionary regimentation this pigeon-fanciers' 

 polity is unattainable. In the absence of any such 

 a severely scientific administrator as we have been 

 dreaming of, human society is kept together by bonds 

 of such a singular character, that the attempt to perfect 

 society after his fashion would run serious risk of loosen- 

 ing them. 



Social organization is not peculiar to men. Other 

 societies, such as those constituted by bees and ants, 

 have also arisen out of the advantage of co-operation in 

 the struggle for existence; and their resemblances to, 

 and their differences from, human society are alike in- 

 structive. The society formed by the hive bee fulfils 

 the ideal of the communistic aphorism "to each accord- 

 ing to his needs, from each according to his capacity." 

 Within it, the struggle for existence is strictly limited. 



