"But" I said, "how can that be? It is good for the species, according to you, that certain individuals should be eliminated, or should sink to the bottom, or whatever else their fate may be. But is that also good for the individual in question?" "I don't know about that," he replied, "and I don't see that it matters. I only say that it is good for the species." "But they are part of the species; so that if it is good for the species it is good for them." "No! for the Good of the species consists in the selection of the best individuals. It is indifferent to all the rest" "Then by the Good of the species you mean the good of the selected individuals?" "Not exactly; I mean it is good that those individuals should be selected." "But good for whom, if not for them? For the individuals who are eliminated? Or for you who look on? Or perhaps, for God?" "God! No! I mean good, simply good." "I'm afraid I don't understand," I said. "Does Good then hang, as it were, in the air, being Good for nobody at all?" "Well, if you like, we will say it is good for Nature." "But is Nature, then, a conscious being?" "I don't say that" "I am very sorry," I said, "but really I cannot understand you. If you reject God, I see only two alternatives remaining. Either the Good you speak of is that of all the individuals of the species taken together, or it is that of the best individuals; and in either case I seem to see difficulties." "What difficulties?" asked Parry. For Wilson did not speak. "Why," I said, "taking the first alternative, I do not see how it can be good for the inferior individuals to be degraded or eliminated. I should have thought, if there were any Good for them, it would consist in their being made better." "I don't see that," objected Dennis; "it might be the best possible thing, for them, to be eliminated." "But in that case," I said, "the best possible thing would be absence of Bad, not Good. And so far as we could talk of Good at all, we could not apply it to them?" "Perhaps not" "Well then, in that case we have to fall back upon the other alternative, and say that by the Good of the species we mean that of the ultimately selected individuals." "Well, what then?" "Why, then, we return, do we not, to the position of Parry, that the Good is that of some particular generation? And there, too, we were met by difficulties. So that altogether I do not really see what meaning to attach to Wilson's conception."