Then, seeking for better guidance, he had bethought himself of the law of the survival of the fittest. This law, he reflected, we may be able consciously to apply to our conduct. But how? It is evident that this law refers essentially to physical impediments and obstructions, to physical conditions only. An icy blast may sweep the top of a high hill and wipe out the tribe that inhabits it, and those living in the valley may survive. Yet, had those in the valley been at the pinnacle, they would have perished, and had those at the pinnacle lived in the valley, they would in turn have survived. And if one were to ask what would have happened had the blast struck both tribes at the same time, we answer, those physically the fittest would have survived, absolutely independent of their virtues or vices or of the degree of their intelligence.
Has intelligence then been of no consequence whatever in the activity of this law? Does not the fact that an intelligent race has survived races of animals physically far more ferocious furnish proof positive of the influence of intelligence on the operation of the great law? No, had the Martian concluded, it furnishes no such proof whatever. An intelligent race has survived, not in consequence of the physical law of survival, but in opposition to it. It survived because it devised means of protection wherewith to oppose the indiscriminating physical forces by which survival had theretofore been determined. And when one compares the individual members of that intelligent race with one another, one soon discovers that those of superior intelligence are often physically far more frail than are the dull-minded specimens, and hence frequently far less fit to withstand the onslaught of antagonistic physical forces.
Do we seek to apply this much quoted law of survival to morality, we find to our dismay that not infrequently the unscrupulous thief and deceiver and the blunt bully grow and prosper, while the honest and virtuous thinker, less tricky or less self-assertive, is the unfortunate and suffering underdog. Of course, if this law of survival were indeed to be applied to our international views, we could only praise and admire those who have acquired power: we certainly would have no good cause to hate them.
We shall soon discover that the Martian spoke in detail on this subject to Professor FANSEE, because it had an important bearing upon the further political events on Mars. And it may therefore be proper for me, also to quote to what conclusion the Martian philosopher came at the end of his revelations.
Would anyone think, he exclaimed, of trying to advocate the law of gravitation as a guide to proper conduct? No one would, because it would be utterly absurd. For no Martian can add one iota to its power or take away one iota from its everlasting activity by conscious effort. We can add to or subtract from it no more than we could add to or subtract from the material of which our Universe is composed. And just as little good or bad as our conscious scheming can do to the law of gravitation, just as little can it aid or hamper the law of the survival of the fittest, except in so far as we may be able to protect ourselves against its indiscriminate lack of consideration. That law has ruled long before there was any self-consciousness, long before there was intelligence in the living entities, long before one group of specimens of a deluded species envied another group its industrial or political importance. If life were to be ruled by this law, it would be absurd to devise remedies against epidemics. In that case, we should allow the disease to ravage the nation all it wants to. Nature would thus render the Martians a special favor by destroying those unfit to survive that particular disease. And after epidemic Number One had passed, we might allow some new epidemic to destroy all the survivors, even though among those killed by the first disease there might have been many who could successfully have survived epidemic Number Two, had they only still been alive to face it.
The absurdity of the proposition of being guided by this automatic law had, therefore, become plainly apparent to our Martian philosopher. And then it was, he told Professor FANSEE, that he began to realize the truth of what had been said by others, that the moral precepts contained in the Heebron and Nazarrano manuscripts had sprung from the verdicts of human reason, after many centuries of experience and observation of social requirements; and that they had become obnoxious to certain Darvinianos, not because they were in themselves wrong or misleading, but because they had until now always been imparted as if inseparably founded on a devoted faith in personal semi-human Deities. Separate them from that ancient faith, and they are strong enough in themselves to remain standing, fastened deep into the rock of human experience, as efficient guide-posts on the road that leads through the labyrinth of life. As experience erected them, experience may perhaps later still further improve them. Not your experience alone, or my experience alone, but the experience of all the Martians combined, scientifically founded on the decrees of further advanced logic.
After this relaxation by way of a heart-to-heart confession, our noble Martian returned to his narrative of the struggling nations, and here he showed at once in what way his confession was connected with his interesting little chapter of political history.
The Two-Ton philosophers, he said, like himself profoundly impressed with the Darviniano faith, had commenced to look to the laws of Nature for moral guidance. And having started to dig in this direction, the momentum of their brain-weight prevented them from changing their course. Thus it came about that NEETCH-UR, a philosopher of note in Two-Tonia, utterly cast aside all Nazarrano precepts. Why cure, protect or aid the weak? Let the strong survive as Nature naturally would let them. Will they be less intelligent? Blame Nature. Will they be less considerate of their brothers’ well-being? It’s the fault of Nature who then apparently wanted it that way. What NEETCH-UR taught, therefore, was the moral excellence of physical and mental power, inconsiderately overriding all those whose powers are less mighty, even if this “moral” attitude should lead the Martians to a condition of total im-morality.
Neetch-ur was an oratorical author productive of high-sounding maxims, who never endeavored to test their efficiency by the road of logic. Though his ideals were evidently floating in the wrong direction, he nevertheless had some of the marks of the genius. Nationality was to him a minor consideration. He addressed his advocacy of the rule of the powerful to all the inhabitants of Mars, and if a Brit or a Skandalnavying were more powerful than a Two-Ton, he would have witnessed with satisfaction the Two-Ton’s overthrow by the Brit or the sturdy Skandalnavying.
To the Two-Tons, influenced as they were by the Martian nationality-mania, this view of life was a bit too broad. The correctness of the nature-view was not questioned. Especially not since one of their most renowned empirical scientists, known as Professor HECKLER, had boldly toddled from his empirical laboratory into the field of philosophy, and had strenuously emphasized the nature-view, with utter neglect of the emotional side of the Martian character. But though the nature-view was held to be perfectly in order, NEETCH-UR’S international broadness did not coincide with the Two-Tonian national mental tendencies. No wonder, therefore, that another author soon arose, named TRITE-SHKUR, who adopted NEETCH-UR’S views, but applied them exclusively to the glory of the Two-Tons. If any one nation was to survive by its power to conquer, that one nation must be the nation of the Two-Tonians. The Brits with their propensity toward territorial expansion had ruled the misty planet long enough. We, the Two-Tons, have a greater quantity of explosives than have the Brits. Our Kooltoor is far greater than their culture. The God of NAZARRO, no matter what precepts NAZARRO himself may have proclaimed, will take joy in seeing us conquer. We must go for the Brits, use our explosives indiscriminately, and thus capture all the territory we can, in order to force the law of survival to make its decision in our favor.