BIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS ai 



co-operation little birds are able to defy the fiercest 

 hawks ♦ Moreover, in the migration of birds, we see a 

 most striking illustration of this co-operation for mutual 

 aid. And what is true of the birds, is still more true of 

 the mammals. Indeed, this willingness to co-operate 

 and to sacrifice individual advantage for the common 

 weal, becomes more and more marked as Evolution 

 proceeds. It is a great mistake to assume, as is so often 

 done, that altruism and self-sacrifice came into the 

 world with mankind. Long before man assumed the 

 erect posture and became man as now we know him, 

 parents sacrificed themselves for their little ones. The 

 strong sacrificed themselves for the weak. Man has 

 behind him a long history of social instincts and moral 

 standards which ever tended to rise to higher and nobler 

 levels as Evolution proceeded. Unselfish service and 

 loving self-sacrifice are bred in his bones, and ** What is 

 bred in the bone comes out in the flesh.'' As Kropotkin 

 truly says, it would be easier for man to renounce the 

 erect posture and to go once more on all fours than for 

 him to throw overboard his moral standards, for his 

 moral standards are far more deeply rooted in the past. 

 Do not imagine for one moment that man is naturally 

 a selfish animal. The savage, though not perhaps the 

 noble personality of Rousseau's imagination, is anything 

 but selfish. He will fight the members of another tribe 

 but not those of his own. When he finds food, he will 

 always share it. If no one is in sight, he will climb up 

 a rock or tree, and shout before partaking of the food 

 alone. Indeed, there is no doubt that the primitive 

 form of society was Communism. To me the most 

 hopeful thing about our modern competitive system (and 

 remember that it is modern), is that it is absolutely 

 contrary to the general trend of Evolution, and therefore 

 it cannot be permanent. It is a consequence of artificial 

 circumstances ; of an environment which is absolutely 



