The plain fact is that man is not ruled by thinking. When man thinks he thinks, he usually merely feels; and his instincts and feelings are powerful precisely in proportion as they are irrational. Reason reveals the other side, and a knowledge of the other side is fatal to the driving power of a prejudice. Prejudices have their important uses, but it is well to try not to mix them up with principles.
The underlying principle in the widespread and ominous revolt of the unfit is that moral considerations must outweigh the mere blind struggle for existence in human affairs.
It is to this fact that we must hold fast if we would understand the world of to-day, and still more the world of to-morrow. The purpose of the revolt of the unfit is to substitute interdependence on a higher plane for the struggle for existence on a lower one. Who dares attempt to picture what will happen if this revolt shall not succeed?
These are problems full of fascination. In one form or another they will persist as long as humanity itself. There is only one way of getting rid of them, and that is so charmingly and wittily pointed out by Robert Louis Stevenson in his fable, "The Four Reformers," that I wish to quote it:
"Four reformers met under a bramble-bush. They were all agreed the world must be changed. 'We must abolish property,' said one.
"'We must abolish marriage,' said the second.
"'We must abolish God,' said the third.
"'I wish we could abolish work,' said the fourth.
"'Do not let us get beyond practical politics,' said the first. 'The first thing is to reduce men to a common level.'
"'The first thing,' said the second, 'is to give freedom to the sexes.'