102 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, 
crease more rapidly than others, and the intellectual faculties of 
the dominant tribes would gradually improve by competition. 
The love of praise, and the dread of blame, would be developed 
by the power of sympathy. The members of a tribe would unite 
in praising conduct which seemed to be lucky or for the general 
good, and in blaming that which seemed to be unlucky or evil.* 
A man who sacrificed himself for the good of his tribe would 
excite by his example the wish for glory in others, and glory 
would in time ripen into the idea of duty. With expanding 
intellect, and greater experience, other and higher virtues, such 
as temperance and veracity, would become esteemed, and by the 
action of selection they would be more and more practised ; and 
so the moral faculties would also gradually improve. 
The principle of selection, we must remember, is everywhere 
present ; we cannot escape from its action. Just as each par- 
ticle of matter is constantly under the sway of gravitation, so 
each thought, as soon as it has left the brain of the thinker, comes 
under the sway of selection. Fortunately most thoughts are 
smothered at once; but a few, which are adapted to the sur- 
roundings, spread far and wide, become dominant, and bend the 
variable minds of men to them. The opinions that spread must 
be adapted to the spirit of the times, but it does not follow that 
they are necessarily progressive ; it is unhappily true that retro- 
gressive opinions have frequently become dominant; but in the 
long run, if competition continue and sufficient time be allowed, 
we may expect that progressive opinions will prevail. Carlyle 
truly remarks that “everything goes by wager of battle in this 
world ; strength, well understood, is the measure of all worth. 
Give a thing time ; if it can succeed it is a right thing.” 
In politics we have the principle of selection personified in 
the government which selects one set of opinions and makes it 
rule over the others; and this gives us the key of the science of 
history. I will explain. Montesquieu divides all governments 
into (1) Republics, in which the whole ora part of the people 
have the supreme power; (2) Monarchies, in which a_ single 
person governs by fixed and established laws; and (3) 
Despotisms, in which a single person directs everything according 
to his own will and caprice. This classification is crude, but it 
will serve my present purpose. In a democratic republic, with a 
free press and universal sufferage, we have the type of govern- 
ment by intrinsic selection; everyone may freely express his 
opinion, and that set of opinions which can secure the greatest 
number of adherents wins the day. In an hereditary despotism, 
where, owing to accident of birth, one individual has power to 
force his private opinions on the rest of the nation, we have the 
type of government by extrinsic selection. Between the two 
are many intermediate forms—the aristocratic republic, the 
limited monarchy, the absolute monarchy, and the elective des- 
potism, in numberless variety. Now we learn from biology that 
* Darwin, 
