It will be well for us to remember that the doctrine of the Survival of the Fittest does not imply that the best endowed, physically or otherwise, have always succeeded in the struggle for existence. By the term Survival of the Fittest we are to understand a natural law by means of which those best able to overcome the unfavourable conditions of their environment survive and are able to propagate their successful qualities. We must bear in mind that neither the growth of the individual nor that of society has proceeded in an unbroken or uninterrupted line; on the contrary, during a certain portion of human existence on the earth, the forces which tend toward degeneration have been stronger than whose which lie along the line of true development. We are assured that the principles of construction and destruction are mutually employed in the reproductive processes, that continuous death means continuous life,—the katabolic or disruptive tendencies of the male being necessary to the anabolic or constructive habits of the female. As it is in reproduction, so has it been through the entire course of development. Side by side, all along the line, these two tendencies have been in operation; the grinding, rending, and devouring processes which we denominate Natural Selection, alongside those which unite, assimilate, and protect. As a result of the separation of the sexes there have been developed on the one side extreme egoism, or the desire for selfish gratification; on the other, altruism, or a desire for the welfare of others outside of self. Hence, throughout the later ages of human existence, since the egoistic principles have gained the ascendency, may be observed the unequal struggle for liberty and justice, against tyranny, and the oppressors of the masses of the human race. From present appearances it would seem, that the disruptive or devouring forces have always been in the ascendency. The philosophy of history however, teaches the contrary. With a broader view of the origin and development of the human race, and the unexpected light which within the last few years has been thrown upon prehistoric society and the grandeur of past achievement, a close student of the past is able to discern a faint glimmering of a more natural age of human existence, and is able to observe in the present intense struggles for freedom and equality, an attempt to return to the earlier and more natural principles of justice and liberty, and so to advance to a stage of society in which selfishness, sensuality, and superstition no longer reign supreme.