i>24 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE LIFE OF OTHERS. 



spiritual heights, and the lowliest physical depths, 

 there should seem to run a pathway which the intel- 

 lect of Man may climb. Ilaeckel has spoken, and 

 rightly, from the stand-point of humanity ; yet lie con- 

 tinues, and with equal right, from the stand-point of 

 the naturalist. " Notwithstanding all this, the com- 

 parative history of evolution leads us back very clearly 

 and indubitably to the oldest and simplest source of 

 love, to the elective affinity of two differing cells." J 



8ELF-S A ORIFICE IN NA TUBE. 



It is not, however, in Ilaeckel's "elective affinity 

 of differing cells" that we must seek the physical 

 basis of Altruism. That may be the physical basis 

 of a passion which is frequently miscalled Love ; but 

 Love itself, in its true sense as Self-sacrifice, Love 

 with all its beautiful elements of sympathy, tender- 

 ness, pity, and compassion, has come down a wholly 

 different line. It is well to be clear about this at 

 once, for the function of Reproduction suggests to the 

 biological mind a view of this factor which would 

 limit its action to a sphere which in reality forms 

 but the merest segment of the whole. The Struggle 

 for the Life of Others has certainly connected with it 

 sex-relations, as we shall see ; but we can only use 

 it scientifically in its broad physiological sense, as 

 literally a Struggling for Others, a giving up self for 

 Others. And these others are not Other-sexes. They 

 have nothing to do with sex. They are the fruits of 

 Reproduction the egg, the seed, the nestling, the 

 little child. So far from its chief manifestation being 

 1 Haeckel, Ecolution of Man, Vol. ii t> p. 394. 



