STRUGGLE AND MUTUAL AID 



terrible side of this is pictured in Robert Louis 



Stevenson's Woodman : 



So hushed the woodland warfare goes 

 Unceasing ; and the silent foes 

 Grapple and smother, strain and clasp 

 Without a cry, without a gasp. 

 Here also sound Thy fans, O God, 

 Here too Thy banners move abroad : 

 Forest and city, sea and shore, 

 And the whole earth, Thy threshing-floor ! 

 The drums of war, the drums of peace, 

 Roll through our cities without cease, 

 And all the iron halls of life 

 Ring with the unremitting strife. 



But the struggle for existence is much wider 

 than all this. As Darwin said : "I use the term 

 in a large and metaphorical sense, including the 

 dependence of one being on another, and including 

 (which is more important) not only the life of the 

 individual, but success in leaving progeny." So 

 when a long -tailed tit gathers over two thousand 

 feathers to line its nest, with the result that its 

 children have a safer cradle and a better start in 

 life, it is illustrating the struggle for existence just 

 as much as does a sparrow-hawk which becomes 

 clever enough to seize a sparrow out of a group on 

 the ground without stopping for an instant in its 

 headlong flight. Both are answering back to diffi- 

 culties, but in different ways. 



What is sometimes called the other side of the 

 struggle for existence is really part of the struggle 

 for existence which includes caring for others as 

 well as caring for self. It includes giving more 



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