Cooperative System Amongst Lower Animals 781 



vancing phase of civilization. One cannot sufficiently empha- 

 size here also that the surpassing social value of such writings 

 has been largely minimized by the interweaving into their 

 writings of miracle stories, of useless legends, and of trumped-up 

 family histories. 



But where we have the complete books of one of these authors, 

 as with Plato's *'Gorgias" and specially his "Republic," we 

 see how the writer struggles, by deepest yearnings, reasonings, 

 and aspirations, to evolve a system of rules, a mode of life, 

 a synthesized unity of national action — we might almost say 

 of international action — that would make man truly noble 

 in himself, noble in civic life, noble and aspiring in national 

 ideals. Nothing can be more sublime also than his intense 

 yearning to link the principles of his republic with, and trace 

 them back to, great laws of the universe that a beneficent 

 God, a first cause, had placed it within the range of the minds 

 of his creatures, his offspring, to recognize and to set in order. 



The writer has already stated that he regards many of Christ's 

 fundamental doctrines as derived from a joint Greek and Zoro- 

 astrian source. But Christ greatly excels alike Plato and 

 Aristotle, in that he vividly proenvirons the God, the ruler 

 of the universe, as an immanent, wise, and loving Father, 

 whose offspring son he was, and whose were all mankind. 



But, while our present-day fashionable preachers have con- 

 stantly minced over and pared do\vn Christ's principles, till 

 they have alienated the great throbbing mass of civilized man, 

 the only fundamental message of Christ is, "All ye are breth- 

 ren. God is your Father. Conform therefore your thoughts, 

 your words, and your actions so as to overcome com})etition 

 by social cooperation." So, while he in no way annulled the 

 moral law, which is the most concise, inclusive, and lofty pres- 

 entation of the neuro-inhibitory and the neuro-motor aspiring 

 sides of man's life, he gave the new commandment, that alone 

 makes and will make cooperative effort a success: "Love 

 one another." - 



"Love one another" is the mental, the moral, and the re- 

 ligious cementing substance that for '■2000 years since Christ's 



