upply of it, the glutton's
appetite develops his cunning and enterprise to the utmost; and he
becomes not only the best fed but the ablest man in the community. But
in more hospitable climates, or where the social organization of the
food supply makes it easy for a man to overeat, then the glutton eats
himself out of health and finally out of existence. All other
voluptuaries prosper and perish in the same way; way; and this is why
the survival of the fittest means finally the survival of the
self-controlled, because they alone can adapt themselves to the
perpetual shifting of conditions produced by industrial progress.

V

THE POLITICAL NEED FOR THE SUPERMAN

The need for the Superman is, in its most imperative aspect, a political
one. We have been driven to Proletarian Democracy by the failure of all
the alternative systems; for these depended on the existence of Supermen
acting as despots or oligarchs; and not only were these Supermen not
always or even often forthcoming at the right moment and in an eligible
social position, but when they were forthcoming they could not, except
for a short time and by morally suicidal coercive methods, impose
superhumanity on those whom they governed; so, by mere force of "human
nature," government by consent of the governed has supplanted the old
plan of governing the citizen as a public-schoolboy is governed.

Now we have yet to see the man who, having any practical experience of
Proletarian Democracy, has any belief in its capacity for solving great
political problems, or even for doing ordinary parochial work
intelligently and economically. Only under despotisms and oligarchies
has the Radical faith in "universal suffrage" as a political panacea
arisen. It withers the moment it is exposed to practical trial, because
Democracy cannot rise above the level of the human material of which its
voters are made. Switzerland seems happy in comparison with Russia; but
if Russia were as small as Switzerland, and had her social problems
simplified in the same way by impregnable natural fortifications and a
population educated by the same variety and intimacy of international
intercourse, there might be little to choose between them. At all
events Australia and Canada, which are virtually protected democratic
republics, and France and the United States, which are avowedly
independent democratic republics, are neither healthy, wealthy, nor
wise; and they would be worse instead