496 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



only of the perennial kinship and the perennial plasticity of 

 life, but that it is also the medium of maintaining in some 

 profound manner the path of what one might call physiological 

 and biological " legitimacy." Goethe's : 



Ein guter Mensch in seinem dunkeln Drange 

 1st sich des rechten Weges wohl bewusst, 



contains a universal biological truth ; and this in so far as 

 organisms are involved in Symbiosis. 



/. You would make all systematic physiological reciprocity 

 synonymous with Symbiosis ? You seem to regard evolution 

 mainly as the development of a symbiotic principle with a kind 

 of bio-moral sanction behind it. What of competition ? 



W . The principle of the interdependence of organisms is 

 already vaguely conceded. It is only a question of what nexus 

 it is that binds a particular set of organisms together. Given 

 an insufficiency of symbiotic nexus, pronounced friction must 

 sooner or later arise. I do not deny the importance of com- 

 petition as an instrument of co-operation ; but I hold with 

 Joubert : " C'est la force et le droit qui reglent toutes choses 

 dans le monde ; la force en attendant le droit" I am merely 

 consistent in seeking to establish the continuity of economic and 

 moral principles. 



/. But are you not going too far in identifying the natural 

 system with the " laws " of economics and in fixing upon man 

 the duty of coming into line with " symbiotic " Nature even in 

 the matter of food ? 



W . The contrast between man and Nature, as Prof. A. 

 Dendy says, is purely arbitrary. The " Science of Life " cannot 

 do without a chapter of Bio-Economics — the knowledge of 

 what makes for real economy in the world. 



Remember that the terms " partnership " and " division of 

 labour " were borrowed in full consciousness from Political 

 Economy. Darwin was much struck by the importance of 

 " division of labour." He did a not inconsiderable amount of 

 work to show how organisms have in course of time become 

 interlocked and inter-evolved. It only remained to obtain 

 a clearer conception of the underlying economic sequence. 

 Take the case of " capitalisation " as an instance. Nature's 

 methods of " capitalisation " are not far different from man's, 

 though they are much more thorough and far-reaching. Nature 



