interests with which the forces that are shaping his development have now begun to operate. The evolutionist who endeavours to obtain a fundamental grasp of the problems which human society presents, will find, therefore, that there is one point, above all others, at which his attention tends to become. concentrated the point where he stands, as it were, between man as a member of society endowed with reason on the one side, and all the brute creation that has gone before him on the other. The problem which presents itself here is of unusual interest. Looking back to the beginning of life, we observe that the progress made up to this point has been very great, so great indeed, that it is almost beyond the power of the imagination to grasp its full meaning and extent. We see at one end of the scale the lowest forms of life, simple, unicellular, almost structureless and without sense of any kind, and at the other, we have in the highest forms below man, a complexity of structure and co-ordination of function, which, to the ordinary mind, appears marvellous in the extreme. The advance so far has been vast and imposing; but looking at the results, it is now necessary to call particularly to mind the teaching of evolutionary science as to the manner in which these results have been obtained. Our admiration is excited by the wonderful attributes of life amongst the higher animals, but it must be remembered that the teaching of science is, that natural selection produced these results only by weeding out, during an immense series of generations, the unsuitable forms, and by the gradual development of the successful types through the slow accumulation of useful variations in the others. The conditions of progress must, therefore, from the very beginning, have involved failure to reach the ordinary possibilities of life for large numbers. We admire the wonderful adaptation of many of the ruminants to their mode of life, the keen scent by which they distinguish an enemy at a distance which seems remarkable to us, their wonderful power of vision, their exceeding fleetness of foot, and their graceful and beautiful forms. But the evolutionist has always before him the cost at which these qualities have been obtained. He has in mind the countless host of individuals which have fallen a prey to their enemies, or failed in other ways in the rivalry of life in the immense period during which natural selection was at work, slowly accumulating the small successful variations, out of which these qualities have been evolved. It is the same with other forms of life; progress everywhere is evident, but the way is strewn with the unsuccessfuls which have fallen in the advance. The first condition of this progress has been, that all the individuals cannot succeed; for, as we have already seen, no form can make any advance, or even retain its place, without deterioration, except by carrying on the species to a greater extent from individuals above the average than from those below it, and consequently by multiplying beyond the limits which the conditions of existence comfortably allow for. There is, therefore, one feature of the situation which cannot be gainsaid. If it had been possible at any time, for all the individuals of any form of life to have secured themselves against the competition of other forms, it would, beyond doubt, have been their interest to have suspended amongst themselves those onerous conditions. which thus prevented large numbers of their kind from reaching the fullest possibilities of life. The conditions of progress, it is true, might have been suspended, but this could not have given them the slightest concern. The results would only have been visible after a prolonged period, and they could not be expected to have appeared to existing individuals as of any importance when weighed against their own interests in the present. But now at last, science stands confronted with a creature differing in one most important respect from all that have gone before him. He is endowed with reason; a faculty which is eventually destined to gain for him, inter alia, the mastery of the whole earth, and to place an impassable barrier between him and all the other forms of life. As we regard the problem which here begins to unfold itself, it is seen to possess features of unusual interest. It would seem that a conclusion, strange and unexpected, but apparently unavoidable, must present itself. If the theories of evolutionary science have been, so far, correct, then this new factor which has been born into the world must, it would appear, have the effect of ultimately staying all further progress. Naturally recoiling from so extraordinary a conclusion, we return and examine again the steps by which it has been reached, but there seems, at first sight, to be no flaw in the process of reasoning. The facts present themselves in this wise. Throughout the whole period of development hitherto the conditions of progress have necessarily been incompatiblewith the welfare of a large proportion of the individuals comprising any species. Yet it is evident that to these, if they had been able to think and to have any voice in the matter, their own welfare must have appeared immeasurably more important than the futureof the species, or than any progress, however great, that their kind might make which thus demanded that they should be sacrificed to it. If it had been possible for them to have reasoned about the matter, it must, beyond doubt, have appeared to them that their interests lay in putting an immediate stop to those onerous conditions from which progress resulted, and which pressed so severely upon them. The advance which the species might be making was, indeed, nothing whatever to them; their own immediate condition was everything. A future in which they could have no possible interest, must undoubtedly have been left to take care of itself, even though it might involve the suspension of the conditions of progress, the future deterioration of their kind, and the eventual extinction of the whole species. Yet here at last was a creature who could reason about these things and who, when his conduct is observed, it may be noticed, actually does reason about them in this way. He is subject to the same natural conditions of existence as all the forms of life that have come before him; he reproduces his kind as they do; he lives and dies subject to the same physiological laws. To him, as to the others, the inexorable conditions of life render progress impossible in any other way than by carrying on his kind from successful variations to the exclusion of others; by being, therefore, subject to selection; by consequently reproducing in numbers beyond those which the conditions of life for the time being comfortably allow for; and by living a life of constant rivalry and competition with his fellows with all the attendant results of stress and suffering to some, and failure to reach the full possibilities of life to large numbers. Nay, more, it is evident that his progress has become subject to these conditions in a more stringent and onerous form than has ever before prevailed in the world. For as he can reach his highest development only in society, the forces which are concerned in working out his evolution no longer operate upon him primarily as an individual but as a member of society. His interests as an individual have, in fact, become further subordinated to those of a social organism, with interests immensely wider, and a life indefinitely longer than his own. How is the possession of reason ever to be rendered compatible with the will to submit to conditions of existence so onerous, requiring the effective and continual subordination of the individual's welfare to the progress of a development in which he can have no personal interest whatever? The evolutionist looks with great interest for the answer which is to be given to a question of such unusual importance. The new era opens, and he sees man following his upward path apparently on exactly the same conditions as have prevailed in the past. Progress has not been suspended, nor have the conditions which produced it been in any way altered. Man gathers himself into primitive societies; for, his reason producing its highest results when he acts in cooperation with his fellows, he of necessity becomes social in his habits through the greater efficiency of his social groups in the rivalry of existence. His societies in like manner continue in a state of rivalry with each other, the less efficient gradually disappearing before the more vigorous types. The strife is incessant; the military type becomes established, and attains at length a great development. All the old conditions appear to have survived into the new era. The resources of the individual are drawn upon to the fullest extent to keep the rivalry at the highest pitch; the winning |