ts of its applicability require to be
carefully defined. But, with these qualifications, I say, with equal
conviction, that it does lay down principles which require study and
consideration, for the simple reason that they assert the existence of
facts which are relevant and important in all the most vitally
interesting problems of to-day.

THE MORALITY OF COMPETITION.

When it has occurred to me to say--as I have occasionally said--that,
to my mind, the whole truth lies neither with the individualist nor
with his antagonist, my friends have often assured me that I was
illogical. Of two contradictory principles, they say, you must take
one. There are cases, I admit, in which this remark applies. It is
true, or it is not true, that two and two make four. We cannot, in
arithmetic, adopt Sir Roger de Coverley's conciliatory view, that there
is much to be said on both sides. But this logical rule supposes that,
in point of fact, the two principles apply to the same case, and are
mutually exclusive. I also think that the habit of taking for granted
that social problems are reducible to such an alternative, is the
source of innumerable fallacies. I hold that, as a rule, any absolute
solution of such problems is impossible; and that a man who boasts of
being logical, is generally announcing his deliberate intention to be
one-sided. He is confusing the undeniable canon that of two
contradictory propositions one must be true, with the assumption that
two propositions are really contradictory. The apparent contradiction
may be illusory. Society, says the individualist, is made up of all its
members. Certainly: if all Englishmen died, there would be no English
race. But it does not follow that every individual Englishman is not
also the product of the race. Society, says the Socialist, is an
organic whole. I quite admit the fact; but it does not follow that, as
a whole, it has any qualities or aims independent of the qualities and
aims of the constituent parts. Metaphysicians have amused themselves,
in all ages, with the puzzle about the many and the one. Perhaps they
may find contradictions in the statement that a human society is both
one and many; a unit and yet complex; but I am content to assume that
unless we admit the fact, we shall get a very little way in sociology.

Society, we say, is an organism. That implies that every part of a
society is dependent upon the other parts, and that although, for
purposes of a