276 DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION 



ing appreciation of the value of reciprocal agreements 

 for mutual advantage, and the Hague Conference is a 

 concrete manifestation of a continuing process of social 

 evolution that finds its beginnings and its interpretation 

 far below human history in lower organic nature. 



But perhaps the most important result of this whole 

 discussion is the lesson of social service that it teaches. 

 We are members of a vast community whose complex 

 total life seems far removed from anything going on in 

 an ant-colony, and our daily tasks vary greatly in 

 specific character and degree when compared with those 

 of lower communal organisms. It seems scarcely cred- 

 ible that any principles of social relationship, however 

 general, can hold true for us and for them. But when the 

 rock-bottom foundations are reached, they are simple 

 and instructive indeed. Being here, we cannot escape 

 our personal obligations as living things or our equally 

 clear duties as members of our community. These 

 facts being as they are, what must we do ? Self- 

 interest is rightly to be served, otherwise we would be 

 incapable of discharging our secondary tasks, namely, 

 those of service to others in ways that are determined 

 by hereditary endowment and conditional circumstances. 

 The difficulty is to find the right compromise between 

 the two sets of obhgations ; but the right balance must 

 be found, or else the health of the community is im- 

 paired. Should any class demand more than its just 

 dues, others must suffer through the diversion of what 

 they require, and the well-being of the selfish class is 

 jeopardized to some degree, so closely interwoven are 

 the interests of all. Freedom of opportunity within 

 the limits of ability and efficiency is the right of every 



