224 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE LIFE OF OTHERS. 



spiritual heights, and the lowliest physical depths, 

 there should seem to run a pathway which the intel 

 lect of Man may climb. Haeckel has spoken, and 

 rightly, from the stand-point of humanity ; yet lie con 

 tinues, and with equal right, from the stand-point of 

 the naturalist. &quot; Notwithstanding all this, the com 

 parative history of evolution leads us back very clearly 

 and indubitably to the oldest and simplest source of 

 love, to tiie elective affinity of two differing cells.&quot; l 



SELF-SACRIFICE IN NATURE. 



It is not, however, in Haeckel s &quot;elective affinity 

 of differing cells&quot; that we must seek the physical 

 basis of Altruism. That may be the physical basis 

 of a passion which is frequently miscalled Love ; but 

 Love itself, in its true sense as Self-sacrifice, Love 

 with all its beautiful elements of sympathy, tender 

 ness, pity, and compassion, has come down a wholly 

 different line. It is well to be clear about this at 

 once, for the function of Reproduction suggests to the 

 biological mind a view of this factor which would 

 limit its action to a sphere which in reality forms 

 but the merest segment of the whole. The Struggle 

 for the Life of Others has certainly connected with it 

 sex-relations, as we shall see ; but we can only use 

 it scientifically in its broad physiological sense, as 

 literally a Struggling for Others, a giving up self for 

 Others. And these others are not Other-sexes. They 

 have nothing to do with sex. They are the fruits of 

 .Reproduction the egg, the seed, the nestling, the 

 little child. So far from its chief manifestation being 

 1 Hacckel, Evolution of Mv, Vol. ir.. p. 304. 



