IMAGERY IN SOCIAL GROWTH 339 



radically change its character, or turn inwards on it- 

 self, and consume itself. 



When, for example, the exploited race, or class, or 

 nation, is weakened, or threatened with destruction, it 

 cannot be restored by any effort on the part of the ex- 

 ploiter, except through some form of assistance which, 

 to serve its purpose must end in the transformation of 

 the predatory system into a benevolent, or cooperative 

 one. 



On the other hand, in times of stress, external 

 sources failing, the true disciple of a predatory sys- 

 tem cannot logically deny the right of each member of 

 that system to attack and consume the other, since all 

 the reasons for friendly cooperation in the robbery of 

 the common enemy have disappeared. That way also, 

 madness lies. His system, therefore, contains no ulti- 

 mate refuge in an enduring, self-saving principle. It 

 must either dissolve in internal anarchy, robbery, or 

 social cannibalism, or change itself into a cooperative 

 system. 



A house divided against itself cannot stand ; a gov- 

 ernment cannot endure, half slave, and half free; a 

 system, of any kind whatsoever, cannot be upbuilt on 

 antagonistic principles, part militant, part cooperative. 

 It will ultimately break down into separate antagonis- 

 tic systems ; or one part will destroy, or neutralize the 

 other, or be to the other a non-contributory burden, a 

 foreign element in the system, not an organic part of 

 the system. 



A cooperative system may be destroyed by a mili- 

 tant one, but there is no power that can destroy the 

 creative principle in cooperation, for that is indestruc- 

 tible ; or that can make a militant system creative, save 



