FACTORS IN CONSTRUCTIVE ACTION 25 



and panoramic methods of nature study have their re- 

 spective virtues as well as the defects of their qualities, 

 for each shows important things the other fails to re- 

 veal. In their attempts to portray nature, biologists 

 often forget the weakness of the one and fail to utilize 

 the strength of the other. By thus limiting their field 

 of vision, by exaggerating the minute, the local and 

 the dramatic incidents of life, they seriously neglect 

 the most significant teachings of nature, although they 

 are familiarly and universally proclaimed by her. 



III. Conflict and Tragedy, Competition and 

 Destruction in Nature 



The picture of nature painted by the field natur- 

 alists was a warring, hostile nature, "red in tooth and 

 claw with ravin." Its merciless "struggle for exist- 

 ence," its wanton destruction and tragic incident deeply 

 moved both scientist and layman and greatly influenced 

 the conduct and the interpretation of human life. 



But the attention of the naturalists was chiefly focused 

 on the fifth act of life's drama, not on the body of the 

 play; on the inevitable collapse of imperfect life sys- 

 tems, not on the upbuilding of cell on cell, and life on 

 life, during long preliminary constructive periods. 



They gave us the familiar picture of life's tragic 

 side, and, like all one-sided representations, it was but 

 a caricature, true, indeed, to the life they portrayed, 

 but misleading in the omission of the larger truth. 

 They showed us the shameless selfishness, the fruitless 

 toil and suffering, the wanton wastefulness of life and 

 the endless competition in strength and skill, in shift- 

 ing alliance with hypocrisy and deceit; with blind 



