Page:Divine Selection or The Survival of the Useful.djvu/51

 the present under the control of the future, there is being accomplished for the first time in the development of the race the emancipation of the future in the present."

Mr. Kidd strenuously maintains that natural selection does not operate alone to the advantage of existing individuals, but that efficiency in the future is ever the end in view.

The essence of projected efficiency is that the present is governed with reference to the future. It comprehends the greater use to which all things are subjected. But we still have to ask, What is the future? Is it an entity? Is it in existence? If not an entity in existence, how can it govern? We can get no nearer the solution of the controlling agency by shifting it as an undefined thing into the future. If it is the future that rules, "the future" must be defined before we have ad-