That such pitiless competition is moral, or desirable, no one but a
few cranks would on examination maintain. "Let us understand once for
all," says Huxley," that the ethical progress of society depends not
on imitating the cosmic process, still less in running away from it,
but in combating it." [Footnote: Evolution and Ethics, title essay.]
(3) This cosmic defiance of Huxley's commands our approval; if
morality interferes with the evolutionary process, let it interfere;
the sooner an immoral process is stopped the better. But, after all,
Huxley unnecessarily limits the meaning of the phrase "the cosmic
process," applying it only to that stage which antedates the
development of morality. That development, however, is itself
natural selection, which in its earlier stages selects merely the
strong and swift and clever, in its later stages selects also the moral
races and individuals. So that to follow out the evolutionary process
is, for man, after all, to follow morality as well as to cultivate
speed and strength and wit.
There is, indeed, a danger to the race from the development of the
tenderer side of morality, in the care for the feeble and degenerate
which permits them to live and produce offspring, instead of being
ruthlessly exterminated, as in ruder days. But this danger can, and
will, be met by measures which, while permitting life and, so far as
possible, happiness, to these unfortunates, will prevent them from
having children.
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