This combative social essay turns conventional morality inside out, arguing that nature itself is wasteful, overproducing life and relying on scarcity, predation, and hardship to prune the excess. Extending that Darwinian logic to human society, it claims that vice performs a grimly useful function: alcoholism, debauchery, crime, and sexual excess shorten the lives of the weak, the ambitious, and the socially dangerous, sparing society from stagnation. The author uses sardonic examples ranging from gangsters to royal dynasties, suggesting that decadent houses like the Bourbons and other ruling families were repeatedly checked by their own indulgence, while disciplined houses such as the Hohenzollerns and Savoy rose through thrift, labor, and practical strength. Yet even here, self-destruction is presented as nature's most efficient housekeeping, making the "unfit" remove themselves. The essay closes by pairing this harsh philosophy with religion, law, and social ethics as imperfect restraints for ordinary people, while insisting that the most defective are beyond saving. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.