Does it not appear that the present tendency is rather to give an advantage to the man who is capable, pushing and diplomatic; are we not selecting men with qualities of value in a struggle, qualities which savour still rather of talons and claws, while we are careless of qualities which we have learned already to value as those of a higher order? In following out a train of reasoning like this, where there are no means of obtaining definite evidence, one can only go upon the general impressions of life which it has been in our power to obtain. Do not these impressions force us to believe that the man who most invariably gets on best is he who untiringly follows out his own advantage, who has one end and aim in life, which he pursues regardless of everything else; and that a course of life like this necessarily implies selfishness and want of regard for the well-being of others? We see so many men around us of the greatest capacity, unselfish and unblemished at the same time, and yet they do not get on, but are passed by men who, in most ways their inferiors, possess instinctively the power to follow out in detail that course which leads quickest to success. How often do we not hear of the generosity of the poor, and of the way in which they assist each other in need and sickness? Do we ever ask ourselves if it could not more truly be said that the _generous are the poor_, that generosity almost of necessity implies a temperament unsuited to the neck to neck struggle which society is increasingly imposing upon those of her citizens who aspire to be rich? Therefore, although we may be thoroughly in sympathy with the democratic changes just alluded to, and may view these as necessarily preludes to a better condition of things, we must not shut our eyes to their dangers, and must not be deceived into looking upon them as capable of achieving by themselves very desirable or final results. FOOTNOTE [26] Consult “Darwinism and Politics,” by Professor D. G. Ritchie, 2nd Edit., p. vi., upon the interference of property with natural selection. CHAPTER VII. STERILITY OF THE CAPABLES. We saw, in the last chapter, that in social communities the struggle of one individual with another for wealth and power is not a fair and open contest, but that all are more or less handicapped by surrounding conditions, lack of capital, education, or influence. We saw that recently more equal chances for success are being given to all, and with the result that the more capable and pushing are gradually tending to form a new upper class, and thereby draining from the labouring classes all those who possess the qualities we have alluded to. _Are the More Capable Relatively Sterile?_