eep. When we hear of
an alienist who cites the increase of murder, suicide and insanity as
evidence that mankind is losing its mental balance, we declare that the
man is crazy himself.

I do not say that such men are or are not right or anywhere near right
in the views they express, but I do say that they are writing in cold
blood in the light of a great deal of exact knowledge and certainly are
much better judges of the truth in those matters than most of us who
dispose of them so brusquely.

The fact is that man, like other animals, differs greatly in individual
ability but he differs from other animals in that the difference between
the most competent and the least competent is enormously greater than
such difference in any other species. The highest type of man is almost
Godlike in the scope and keenness of his intellect. The lowest type
reaches depths of degradation not touched by any other animal. There is
no degradation so utterly degraded as a degraded mind.

If you ask what all this has to do with Socialism, the reply is that
it has everything to do with it. The sole object which I have in this
address is to impress upon you the concept of man as an animal in the
grip of an all-powerful Nature, and differing from other animals solely
in his greater ability to dodge and evade, and so prolong the processes
through which Nature will surely get him in the end; to conceive of him
also as subject to the same law which enthralls other animals, whereby
the fittest who demonstrate their fitness in the economic struggle shall
survive while the least fit shall perish; to conceive of him as prepared
and inspired for the struggle by the love of self which Nature has
implanted in his soul in order that the race may endure to the utmost
limit possible for it, by the survival of those having the greatest
capacity for happiness.

And, having fixed this conception in your minds, form your own judgment
of the probable outcome of a contest which would begin by eliminating
from man the one principle--selfishness--through which he must survive
if he survives at all.

Thus far, I have dealt with the subject in icy cold blood as a purely
economic problem wholly excluding all considerations of humanity. It
must be dealt with in that way if we are to deal with it intelligently.
What must be will be, however dearly we may wish it otherwise. But we do
not wish to go home with ice in our souls, and let us see if we cannot
find some r