220 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE LIFE OF OTHERS. 



has been briefly explained. But it is necessary to be 

 explicit here, even to redundancy. We have arrived 

 at a point from which the Ascent of Man takes a fresh 

 departure, a point from which the course of Evolution 

 begins to wear an entirely altered aspect. No such 

 consummation ever before occurred in the progress of 

 the Avorld as the rise to potency in human life of the 

 Struggle for the Life of Others. The Struggle for the 

 Life of Others is the physiological name for the 

 greatest word of ethics Other-ism, Altruism, Love. 

 From Self-ism to Other-ism is the supreme transition 

 of history. It is therefore impossible to lodge in the 

 mind with too much solidity the simple biological fact 

 on which the Altruistic Struggle rests. Were this a 

 late phase of Evolution, or a factor applicable to single 

 genera, it would still be of supreme importance; but 

 it is radical, universal, involved in the very nature of 

 life itself. As matter is to be interpreted by Science 

 in terms of its properties, life is to be interpreted in 

 terms of its functions. And when we dissect down to 

 that form of matter with which all life is associated, 

 we find it already discharging in the humblest organ- 

 isms visible by the microscope the function on which 

 the stupendous superstructure of Altruism indirectly 

 comes to rest. Take the tiniest protoplasmic cell, 

 immerse it in a suitable medium, and presently it will 

 perform two great acts the two which sum up life, 

 which constitute the eternal distinction between the 

 living and the dead Nutrition and Reproduction. 

 At one moment, in pursuance of the Struggle for Life, 

 it will call in matter from without, and assimilate it 

 to itself ; at another moment, in pursuance of the 

 Struggle for the Life of Others, it will set a portion of 



