42 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



material success, or a more developed capacity for obeying the law of 

 t^ie jungle. 



The other point is this. Darwin attached great importance to the 

 web of life, to the manifold and subtle inter-relations that bind creatures 

 together in a vibrating systema Naturce. One of the reasons for his 

 emphasis was simply that he was so good a naturalist; the other reason 

 was his discernment that survival in the struggle for existence is defi- 

 nitely related to the already established system of linkages, to all sorts 

 of interdependences and solidarities. The texture of the web of life is 

 so fine that even an apparently trivial new quality may be vital to the 

 situation. For man this is of the utmost importance, that selection 

 has a definite reference to the established system of relations. In 

 other words, man does to a large extent make his own sieves. 



A broad survey of the realm of organisms shows that a very large 

 proportion of time and energy is given over to activities which are not 

 greatl)^, if at all, to the advantage of the individual. Borne on by im- 

 pulses and instincts as imperious as hunger and thirst, how many ani- 

 mals spend themselves for their race. It is their meat and drink to do 

 so, and Nature takes advantage of their capacity for self-forgetfulness. 

 In some types it seems almost extreme, as Cresson says : 



Everything for the species; everything through the individual; nothing for 

 the individual. 



In Goethe's words, 



Nature holds a couple of draughts from the cup of love to be fair payment 

 for the pains of a lifetime. 



The continuance of the race is often very costly or even fatal to the 

 parent, and there is exhaustion of energies in securing the safety and 

 sustenance of the young. It is a great fact of Organic Nature that 

 while competitive individualism pays up to a certain point, survival and 

 success are also to those types in which the individual has been more or 

 less subordinated to the welfare of the species. Part of their fitness 

 is in being capable of self-sacrifice. This is part of Nature's strategy 

 which man has not adequately appreciated. 



Thus we can not accept the caricature of Nature as in a state of 

 universal Hobbesian warfare, each against all, and no discharge for any. 

 That is only one aspect of the struggle for existence, and the subordina- 

 tion of the individual to the species is another. Especially among the 

 finer forms of life do we find that the answer-back which is given to 

 the environing limitations is less and less frequently an intensification 

 of competition, is more and more frequently something subtler, some 

 parental sacrifice, some cooperative device, some experiment in sociality. 

 The improbability of war being the saving grace of human history grows 

 upon us. 



