80 THE LAWS OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY 



and tradesman sees, in all those who are engaged in the 

 same occupation, competitors who are dangerous in pro- 

 portion to the amount of their success. A social organiza- 

 tion in which there shall be co-operation without compe- 

 tition is clearly an impossibility. It may form a theme 

 for poets and a dream of philanthropy, but as human na- 

 ture is at present constituted, it is a state of things which 

 can never be realized. A state of warfare appears to be 

 the natural state of man. This may be an unpalatable 

 truth, but it is far better to give true than false views of 

 life. 



It would not be difficult to prove that there is antago- 

 nism amongst all the inferior forms of animal life, and 

 thus show it to be a universal law of Nature. Even the 

 flowers which decorate our fields and forests, are mutually 

 opposed to each other. Each has to struggle into exist- 

 ence against a host of competitors ; for Nature, although 

 she has been prolific of the seeds of life, has limited the 

 supply of room and food. Shrubs and trees prevent, by 

 the extent of soil which they occupy, the vegetation of spe- 

 cies of a humbler growth. Millions of seeds are annually 

 produced which never germinate. Borne away from the 

 plants which produced them by the winds or waves, they 

 fall into situations unfavorable to their growth, or upon a 

 soil which is already preoccupied by other plants. A num- 

 ber of ferns growing on a hillside, will successfully maintain 

 their monopoly of the ground for ages against all other in- 

 truders, notwithstanding the facilities afforded to the sur- 

 rounding plants for the dispersion of their seeds. If, for 

 example, a seed from a neighboring thistle or dandelion 

 should fall amongst them, it cannot germinate, because 

 they have possession of the ground, absorb all its food in 

 the struggle amongst themselves, so that it is impossible 

 that any should be afforded for the stranger. 



To man, however, the " Minister and Interpreter of Na- 

 ture,"* reason has been given to control those passions 



* " Homo naturae minister et interpres, tantum facit et intelligit, quantum 

 de naturae ordine re vel mente observaverit, nee amplius scit aut potest." 

 Bacon's Novum Organum, 



