THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 93 



not ensue it. The moral nature in us asks for no more 

 than is compatible with the general good; the non-moral 

 nature proclaims and acts upon that fine old Scottish 

 family motto, "Thou shalt starve ere I want." Let us 

 be under no illusions, then. So long as unlimited multi- 

 plication goes on, no social organization which has ever 

 been devised, or is likely to be devised, no fiddle-faddling 

 with the distribution of wealth, will deliver society from 

 the tendency to be destroyed by the reproduction within 

 itself, in its intensest form, of that struggle for existence 

 the limitation of which is the object of society. And 

 however shocking to the moral sense this eternal compe- 

 tition of man against man and of nation against nation 

 may be; however revolting may be the accumulation of 

 misery at the negative pole of society, in contrast with 

 that of monstrous wealth at the positive pole; 17 this 

 state of things must abide, and grow continually worse, 

 so long as Is tar holds her way unchecked. It is the 

 true riddle of the Sphinx; and every nation which does 

 not solve it will sooner or later be devoured by the mon- 

 ster itself has generated. 



The practical and pressing question for us, just now, 

 seems to me to be how to gain time. "Time brings 

 counsel," as the Teutonic proverb has it; and wiser folk 

 among our posterity may see their way out of that which 

 at present looks like an impasse. 



It would be folly to entertain any ill-feeling towards 

 those neighbours and rivals who, like ourselves, are slaves 

 of Istar; but, if somebody is to be starved, the modern 

 world has no Oracle of Delphi to which the nations can 

 appeal for an indication of the victim. It is open to us 



17 [It is hard to say whether the increase of the unemployed 

 poor, or that of the unemployed rich, is the greater social evil. 

 1894. T. H. H.] 



