56 GRAND STRATEGY OF EVOLUTION 



which cannot be realized till self is swallowed up and 

 consumed in posterity, is a basic attribute of nature- 

 action, the ethical and the moral factor essential to all 

 phases of growth and evolution. 



Whether all these acts are conscious or intelligent 

 acts is here immaterial. The outstanding fact remains 

 that in this universal system of reciprocal egoism and 

 altruism, where common profits are endowments to the 

 future, lies the secret of nature's creative power, the ex- 

 planation, so far as explanation is possible, of her 

 strategy. 



VIII. The Ethics and Morality of Nature Action as 

 a Guide to Individual Conduct 



It is not without significance that man's chief desire 

 is to accomplish something, and his chief satisfaction 

 in life is the feeling that he is in some way a creative 

 power and an instrument to progress. To best satisfy ;, 

 that desire, man must look to nature for instruction. 

 He must seek in nature his guide to constructive and; 

 saving conduct, for the age-long processes which have 

 created the multitudinous forms of life are thereby 

 standardized as righteous and moral processes. 



By the intelligent contemplation of this long series 

 of creative events, man may best hope to gain some in- 

 sight into the constructive conduct of nature, and to find 

 some index to her standards of Tightness. In the final 

 analysis, her creative methods alone can give him a se- 

 cure basis for his own systems of ethics and morality. 

 They will be to him his guide to profitable living, not 

 only as an individual, but also as one of nature's asso- 



