The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-02-06

Our VENERABLE AND RESPECTED contemporary
the Friend, in its issue for the current month
gives quite an emphatic endorsement to the theory
Of 1.-The survival of the fttest. The logical
deductions that might result from this theory
probably never troubled the philosopher Darwin
in the slightest when he promulgated it, any
more than did possible differences from his first
principles bother that other hypothesis, Tyndali.
Thus it is quite likely that Darwin will regard
with content If not cOmPlaceBcy the logical CON
illusions recently arrived ut by two French savants,
and which we end briefly stated in the Springfield
(Mass.) Republican. These conclusions, il is
true, would Immediately nullily the civilization
which has rendered possible their formation, and
in TACT, given occasion for them since the lesson
they imbOdy is that all our discoveries and appIi-
anees Of civilization have been interlerences with
the order Of nature. One OF these progressive
Frenchmen, NJ. Louis Langue, starts from the
Darwin pOstuiate land which is apparently en-
dOrsed by our Friend that natures method Of
producing Il fine race is simply the survival of
the fttest, that is, that in the struggle for ex-
istence the weak are crushed out and only the
strong survive and propagate,-and argues that
by our oliciOus invention of medicines aud doc
tors and general hygienic education We have been
going directly counter 10 natures plan. 0sten-
sibly, to be sure, this has been for the good of the
race, but really to its hurt; since thus the sick
and weakly, whom nature would have wisely de-
stroyed, have been preserved, and have filed the
earth with n race cursed by hereditary diseases
and tendencies, instead of q race of intellectual
and physical giants, such as natures process
could have Developed. VI. Langue would propose
an immediate cessation of these mistaken prac-
tees.
The other pbilosj pher, FIllemont by name,
boldly attacks abstinence from stimulants as the
great detcriorative agency of the world. He
points out that the earliest dawn OF history shows
alcoholic stimulants in use; distillation repre-
scented in the pyramids,-N ah drunk in his vine
yard, etc. that the mighty races of history, as
the Norsemen, the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons,
the Germans, the English, have always been great
drinkers, while the efeminatc and feeble nations,
such as the Hindus, tire Asiatics generally. the
aboriginal races Of America, are abstemious. So,
says this disciple Of Darwin, the strong and pow
errul Individuals IN history, whether in national
affairs, IN war, in literature or in art, have been
consumers Of alcohol, while no total abstainer
ever left his permanent mark in any department Of
human ~exertiJn. The inebriate. who ruins him
self by gross indulgence, Is the weak exception
his powers decay, and in - the struggle FOR exist
eno,'' Of Which alcOhvl is a c~oucOmIant, he goes
down. In a state Of nature those who drink
largely would alone survive and propagate in the
long run the bumners. aud the fanatics who at
tempt to battle the imPeriOus demands Of nature
for .timulant, and thus quarrel with their enyi-
ronment, disu appearing from tire earth
One cannot but feel sad for the estimable por-
tions OT our globes present population who must
be sacrificed to carry out these extensions Of Mr..
Darwin idea, but philosophy is inexorable,-
they must reconcile themselves a. best they can.
.. That there is such a law cannot be doubted. To
deny it is absurd, or TO ignore it is only an exhi-
bition Of Ignorance Think what giants We
might have been had our ancestors only used more
alcohol, and had there never beer any physicians
and materia mediaI
WE cory from the Friend on our outside an
article on "Our Island Boys Abroad. which,
while it is CRAFTY ing to thyse more Immediately
interested. implies a deserved compliment to our
island teachers at home. IL is unquestionably
due u the start the boys lave had under faith
full and careful teachers here that they are now
progressing so satisfactorily in their higher stud
ies abroad.
Yet j. the scho1l-h5use rude.
- j. The chry saEs 3 tie butIeTdy.- a.
To the rich h1wer TIE seed The dusky walls .
Hold the fair germ 81 knowledge, and The tre
Glorious in beauty, spiIen with it, EpiIs. -...rt
To this low schplLouse traces hack lis lie"
All honor TO the teachers Of youth in Punahou,
n l. II IL - - II III