Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/503

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WAR AND THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
497

cumstances that the result of the operation of that law will be to human advantage, that is to say, that "the fittest" may be "the best." The construction of the pyramids or the Washington Monument did not affect in the least the law of gravitation. The improvement of our grain and our live stock has not in the least affected the law of the survival of the fittest. No more would the development of a society in accordance with the highest qualities of man's nature affect that law. Natural law does not stand in the way of the one achievement any more than the other. The fittest nations will survive; it is for us to make fit the conditions. To assist us in this task is the supreme function and opportunity of science.

Science, d'où prévoyance; prévoyance, d'où action: telle est la formule très-simple qui exprime, d'une manière exacte, la relation générale de la science et de l'art, en prenant ces deux expressions dans leur acceptation totale.[1]

  1. Comte, Auguste, "Philosophie Positive," Vol. I., p. 51.