THE EVOLUTION OF SERVICE 4° 7 



act of life's drama, not on the body of the play ; on the tumult and the 

 decisive battles of a complex, mature life whose work was nearly done, 

 not on its earlier, more primitive phases, nor on the silent, constructive 

 processes, the building up of cell on cell, and organ on organ, that were 

 taking place during the long and peaceful periods of preparation. 



They gave us the now familiar picture of life's tragic side, and like 

 all one-sided representations, it was but a caricature, true indeed to 

 the life they portrayed, but misleading in the omission of the truth. 

 They showed us the shameless selfishness; the needless toil and suffer- 

 ing; the wanton wastefulness of life; the endless competitions of 

 strength and skill, in shifting alliance with cunning, hypocrisy and de- 

 ceit; with blind chance in the background awarding death to the van- 

 quished and to the victor life's bitter spoils. 



With master strokes, and with the convincing accuracy of the trained 

 observer, they painted the "disastrous chances" of a tumultuous life; 

 the " moving accidents by flood and field " ; the spectacular catastrophes 

 of failure. But they did not portray the slow and benevolent processes 

 of construction ; the peaceful cooperations, the careful conservations, and 

 the successful sacrifices of self to higher service. Some writers have 

 indeed recognized the element of benevolence in the cooperation that 

 forms such an important feature of social organization; but usually it 

 has been regarded as something peculiar to the association of a few 

 highly organized animals, and to man, not as something inherent to all 

 stages of organic and inorganic nature. 



But a new phase of the primeval method of nature, a new instinct, 

 one that proclaims the universal brotherhood of man with man, and 

 the brotherhood of man with all life and with nature, is seeking 

 expression in the heart of man. It demands the so-called "humani- 

 tarian" methods of benevolent union, of cooperative exchange, of sym- 

 pathy and service. The hand hesitates to obey the heart's commands, 

 because the false prophets of science still dictate the use of nature's 

 crudest, least effective methods, saying that progress can be made only 

 through appropriation, elimination and destruction; through compe- 

 tition and then more competition; through mastery by brute force, or 

 strategy; through selfishness; and the license of freedom uncontrolled. 

 I challenge this interpretation of the order. It is not the real teaching 

 of life, nor of nature. It places the emphasis in the wrong place and 

 on the wrong thing. It measures the cost, but does not see the gain. 

 It counts the failures, but does not recognize the manner of achieving 

 success. 



There is nothing new, essentially new, or unlike nature's methods, 

 in the "humanity" of man, for the "humanitarian methods" of ma- 

 king progress through sympathetic, or harmonious, action; through 

 benovelent union; through cooperative exchange and service, are as old 



