76 PROLEGOMENA 



great bulk of the polity, would not be those "fittest" who 

 got to the very top, but the great body of the moderately 

 "fit," whose numbers and superior propagative power, 

 enable them always to swamp the exceptionally endowed 

 minority. 



I think it must be obvious to every one, that, whether 

 we consider the internal or the external interests of so- 

 ciety, it is desirable they should be in the hands of those 

 who are endowed with the largest share of energy, of 

 industry, of intellectual capacity, of tenacity of purpose, 

 while they are not devoid of sympathetic humanity; and, 

 in so far as the struggle for the means of enjoyment 

 tends to place such men in possession of wealth and in- 

 fluence, it is a process which tends to the good of society. 

 But the process, as we have seen, has no real resemblance 

 to that which adapts living beings to current conditions 

 in the state of nature; nor any to the artificial selection 

 of the horticulturist. 



xv. 



To return, once more, to the parallel of horticulture. 

 In the modern world, the gardening of men by them- 

 selves is practically restricted to the performance, not 

 of selection, but of that other function of the gardener, 

 the creation of conditions more favourable than those 

 of the state of nature; to the end of facilitating the free 

 expansion of the innate faculties of the citizen, so far 

 as it is consistent with the general good. And the busi- 

 ness of the moral and political philosopher appears to 

 me to be the ascertainment, by the same method of ob- 

 servation, experiment, and ratiocination, as is practised 

 in other kinds of scientific work, of the course of conduct 

 which will best conduce to that end. 



But, supposing this course of conduct to be scientifi- 



