“But in what sense do you understand the word community?”

“In the sense of that organization of individuals which represents, so to speak, the species.”

“How represents?”

“In the sense that it is its function to maintain and perfect the species.”

“But is that the function of the community?”

“If it is not, it ought to be; and to a great extent it is.  If you look at the social mechanism, not with the eyes of a mere historian, who usually sees nothing, but with those of a biologist and man of science, intent upon essentials, you will find that it is nothing but an elaborate apparatus of selection, natural or artificial, as you like to call it.  First, there is the struggle of races, which may be traced not only in war and conquest, but more insidiously under the guise of peace, so that, for example, at this day you may witness throughout Europe the gradual extinction of the long-headed fair by the round-headed dark stock.  Then there is the struggle of nation with nation, resulting in the gradual elimination of the weaker—­that, of course, is obvious enough; but what is not always so clearly seen is the not less certain fact, that within the limits of each society the same process is everywhere at work.  To pass over the economic struggle for existence, of which we are perhaps sufficiently aware, what else is our system of examinations but a mechanism of selection, whereby it is determined that certain persons only shall have access to certain professions?  What else is the convention whereby marriages are confined to people of the same class, thus securing the perpetuation of certain types, and especially of the better-gifted and better-disposed?  Turn where we may we find the same phenomenon.  Society is a machine for sifting out the various elements of the race, combining the like, disparting the unlike, bringing some to the top, others to the bottom, preserving these, eliminating those, indifferent to the fate, good or bad, of the individuals it controls, but envisaging always the well-being of the Whole.”

“But,” I objected, “is it so certain that it is well-being that is kept in view?  Do you not recognize a process of deterioration as well as of improvement?  You mentioned, for instance, that the long-headed fair race, is giving place to what I understand is regarded as an inferior type.”

“No doubt,” he admitted, “there are periods of decline.  Still, on the whole, the movement is an upward one.”

“Well,” I replied, “that, after all, is not the question we are at present discussing.  Your main point is, that when we speak of Good we mean, or should mean, the Good, not of the individual, but of the species.  But what, I should like to know, is the species?  Is it somehow an entity, or being, that it has a Good?”

“No,” he replied, “it is merely, of course, a general name for the individuals; only for all the individuals taken together, not one by one or in groups.”