such circumstances, be independent of all religious sanctions, including that larger class which operate indirectly through producing satisfactions of the kind which most people, whatever their opinions, derive from acting in accordance with standards which general feeling holds to be right. This party, as we shall see further on, must, however, sooner or later, find itself ranged in opposition to the progressive tendencies of modern biological science, as, indeed, Mr. Spencer has already found himself to be in the controversy which he has recently undertaken against the Weismann theories.' But, over and above this, the aim throughout the preceding pages has been to show that the peculiar feature in which human evolution differs from all previous evolution consists in the progressive development of the intellect, rendering it impossible that instincts of the kind indicated should continue to act as efficient sanctions for altruistic conduct. Hence the characteristic feature of human evolution, ever growing with the growth and developing with the development of the intellect, and forming the natural complement of its growth and development; namely, the phenomenon of our religions-the function. of which is to provide the necessary controlling sanctions in the new circumstances. Hence also the success. of those forms which have provided sanctions that have contributed most effectively to the working out of that cosmic process which has been in progress from the beginning of life. Human reason alone can never, in the nature of things, provide any effective sanction to the individual for conduct which contributes to the furtherance of this process, for one of the essential 1 Vide Contemporary Review, February 1893, "The Inadequacy of Natural Selection, I."; Ibid. March 1893, "The Inadequacy of Natural Selection, II."; Ibid. May 1893, "Professor Weismann's Theories." features of the cosmic process is the sacrifice of the individual himself, not merely in the interest of his fellows around him, but in the interests of generations. yet unborn. The intellect, uncontrolled by ethical forces of the kind we have been considering, must, in society, be always individualistic, disintegrating, destructive; even, as we shall have to observe later, to the extent of suspending the operation (in the interests of the evolution the race is undergoing) of fundamental feelings like the parental instincts, which have behind them, not only the infinitesimal period during which society has existed, but the whole span of time since the beginning of life. In conclusion, it may be remarked that nothing tends to exhibit more strikingly the extent to which the study of our social phenomena must in future be based on the biological sciences, than the fact that the technical controversy now being waged by biologists as to the transmission or non-transmission to offspring of qualities acquired during the lifetime of the parent, is one which, if decided in the latter sense, must produce the most revolutionary effect throughout the whole domain of social and political philosophy. If the old view is correct, and the effects of use and education are transmitted by inheritance, then the Utopian dreams of philosophy in the past are undoubtedly possible of realisation. If we tend to inherit in our own persons the result of the education and mental and moral culture of past generations, then we may venture to anticipate a future society which will not deteriorate, but which may continue to make progress, even though the struggle for existence be suspended, the population regulated exactly to the means of subsistence, and the antagonism between the individual and the social organism extinguished, even as Mr. Herbert Spencer has anticipated. But if, as the writer believes, the views of the Weismann party are in the main correct; if there can be no progress except by the accumulation of congenital variations above the average to the exclusion of others below; if, without the constant stress of selection which this involves, the tendency of every higher form of life is actually retrograde; then is the whole human race caught in the toils of that struggle and rivalry of life which has been in progress from the beginning. Then must the rivalry of existence continue, humanised as to conditions it may be, but immutable and inevitable to the end. Then also must all the phenomena of human life, individual, political, social, and religious, be considered as aspects of this cosmic process, capable of being studied and understood by science only in their relations thereto. 1 Vide Data of Ethics, chap. xiv. CHAPTER VIII MODERN SOCIALISM BEFORE proceeding now to the further consideration of the laws which underlie the complex social phenomena that present themselves in the civilisation around us, it will be well to look for a moment backwards, so as to impress on the mind the more characteristic features of the ground over which we have travelled. We have seen that progress from the beginning of life has been the result of the most strenuous and imperative conditions of rivalry and selection, certain fundamental physiological laws rendering it impossible, in any other circumstances, for life to continue along the upward path which it has taken. Man being subject like other forms of life to the physiological laws in question, his progress also was possible only under the conditions. which had prevailed from the beginning. The same process, accordingly, takes its course throughout human history; but it does so accompanied by phenomena quite special and peculiar. The human intellect has been, and must necessarily continue to be, an important factor in the evolution which is proceeding. Yet the resulting self-assertiveness of the individual must be absolutely subordinated to the maintenance of a process in which the individual himself has not the slightest interest, but to the furtherance of which his personal welfare must be often sacrificed. Hence the central feature of human history, namely the dominance of that progressively developing class of phenomena included under the head of religions whereby this subordination has been effected. Hence, also, the success of those forms which have contributed to the fullest working out of that cosmic process which is proceeding throughout human existence, just as it has been proceeding from the beginning of life. What we have, therefore, specially to note before advancing further is, that it is this cosmic process which is everywhere triumphant in human history. There has been no suspension of it. There has been no tendency towards suspension. On the contrary throughout the period during which the race has existed, the peoples amongst whom the process has operated under most favourable conditions have always been the most successful. And the significance of that last and greatest phase of social development which has taken place in our Western civilisation, in which all the people are being slowly brought into the rivalry of life, consists simply in the fact that this process tends to reach therein the fullest and completest expression it has ever attained. Keeping these facts in mind, let us now proceed to consider the significance of that great social movement which is beginning to exert a gradually deepening influence on the political life of our period. The uprising known throughout Europe, and in America, as the Socialist movement is the most characteristic product of our time. Nothing is, however, more remarkable than the uncertainty, hesitation, and even bewilderment with which it is regarded, not only by those whose |