The Evolution of Organisms 179 



umph in the solution of the greatest question with 

 which natural science has hitherto successfully 

 dealt." 



Let be, they say, let nature alone, let them fight 

 it out. Through struggle all progress has come, 

 contention is the world's vital force, "the survival 

 of the fittest," don't you know, in the struggle for 

 existence. Let be, let be. The law of nature is 

 every one for himself; there is a Hobbesian war 

 of each against all; all creatures are Ishmaelites; 

 and are not the results fair to see ? 



Even if this were so, it is difficult to see why man, 

 conscious of all, and in a sense above all, should 

 fold his hands and say that Nature's method is good 

 enough for him. As a matter of fact, Huxley's note- 

 worthy thesis was that ethical progress for man 

 depends upon his combating the cosmic process, 

 pitting his microcosm against the macrocosm. 



What we have been trying to show, however, 

 is that Nature has more to say than "Every one 

 for himself." There has been a selection of the 

 other-regarding, of the self-sacrificing, of the 

 gentle, of the loving. 



If we wish to draw any ethical deduction from 

 the course of organic evolution, we must have all 

 the facts before us. We must not make idols of 

 phrases, or rest content with partial pictures, 

 or with projecting our social creed on Nature; we 

 must go to Nature itself. When we do so, we 



