M. DAUDET ON EVOLUTION.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOE.".1 SIR,—In your most interesting and suggestive criticism of " La Lutte pour la Vie," you say that " M. Daudet's object is to ran down the doctrine that the conflict for existence tends to secure the survival of the fittest." Surely it is not scientific Darwinism that he runs down, but " les hypocrites, bandits,"
who use "de l'idee mal comprise de doctrines devices de leur vrai seas." And such is popular Darwinism in England, on which, if nations are to redeem one another, it may well be the function of a Frenchman to shed "lucidity."
Whatever the more cultivated may think, the average Philistine takes Darwinism to sanction brass and bounce, push and puffing, together with the unrestricted power of the " almighty dollar "—(Is the name "Astier " quite acci- dental ?)—and he tends to regard those " qualities " as destined to override the " defects" of breeding and intellect and culture, and of reverence for the sanctities of human love.
Now, Valliant, in the play, is fit to survive, not because he uses the pistol, which, as you suggest, belongs rather to " Nature red in tooth and claw," but because of the moral force nerving him to use it; his grand scorn of jobbery (how easily he might have blackmailed Paul') with which the "jingling guinea" could not tamper; his passionate grasp of a father's ideal.
If Paul Astier had survived the pistol-shot which on the stage took effect below the heart, the victim being " sans entrailles " in any but the animal sense, would the conflict for existence have left a more promising type of " l'homme redress6 " in him than in poor Antonin, whose uncouth little figure indeed stood in awe of " la jaquette
la Mille, et la moustache au petit fer," but whose scientific heart opened out to the truth, "Rien de grand sans bonte, sans pitie, sans solidarite humaine "?
Lydie is rather a feeble little baggage, fed on the " Ame, etoile fleur " of the sensational novel ; but such as she form not the least factor in the midnight auction of Piccadilly Circus. Even with a Desclauzas or a Noblet to lighten them, plays " with a purpose" are apt to be heavy. Pistol scenes on the stage are always intolerable. Notwithstanding, I confess to have experienced a moral " elan," closely bound up with a new light and a new faith, as within earshot of " les formules brutales " outside, " La Lutte pour la Vie " placed the monied seducer at his true level : " Adjuge
c'est Bien le mot."—I am, Sir, &c., LL. J. K. S.
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