The Management of Life 85 



It is clear that nothing in the biological principle 

 that life is to be promoted calls for any unnecessary 

 sacrifice of the slightly lower to the slightly higher. 

 There is nothing in that principle to justify the de- 

 struction of millions of men to satisfy the ambitions 

 of a Napoleon. Nothing in it calls for a ruthless 

 neglect and contempt for the lives and interests of the 

 slightly lower to gratify the desires of the slightly 

 higher. Respect and sympathy for the lives and in- 

 terests of all mankind is what the principle of pro- 

 moting life demands; with an issue drawn between 

 higher and lower only when such an issue cannot be 

 escaped. 



Other things that must weigh in deciding the indi- 

 vidual's course of action come into view when one 

 considers the fact of progressive evolution in connec- 

 tion with the way in which the continuance of life is 

 brought about. In most forms of life, after a certain 

 period of living the existing individuals disappear; 

 they die and are replaced by others. 



This ceasing to live is an event that stands in sharp 

 opposition to that striving for the promotion and 

 fulness of his own life and that of his associates 

 which is the mainspring of effort in each individual. 

 Attempts have been made to convince the individuals 

 that, in man at least, this change is only apparent; 

 that, in fact, the same individuals continue to live 

 after the event that we call death. Such a doctrine 

 forms one of the main foundations of certain types 

 of religion. 



