92 DARWINISM AND HUMAN LIFE 



to struggle to keep their foothold amid the storm 

 of the careless physical environment. There are 

 also struggles for mates and for the sake of off- 

 spring. Which of these endeavours is the struggle 

 for existence ? Each and all. For the real mean- 

 ing of the phrase is to be found, not in picturing 

 this or that kind of struggle or endeavour, but 

 rather in the general idea of living organisms 

 asserting themselves against limitations and diffi- 

 culties, partly no doubt due to their immediate 

 competitors of the same kin or even family, but 

 by no means restricted to this. 



OUT thesis is that progress depends on much 

 more than a squabble around the platter ; that the 

 struggle for existence is far more than an inter- 

 necine competition at the margin of subsistence ; 

 that it includes all the multitudinous efforts for self 

 and others between the poles of love and hunger ; 

 that it comprises all the endeavours of mate for 

 mate, of parent for offspring, of kin for kin, as well 

 as every detail of self-assertiveness ; that existence 

 for many an animal means the well-being of a 

 socially bound or kin-bound organism in a social 

 milieu ; that egoism is not satisfied until it becomes 

 altruistic. 



APPLICATION OF THE CONCEPT TO HUMAN LIFE. 

 What has the Darwinian conception of the 

 struggle for existence to do with human life ? 



(1) If Nature has any particular word to say 

 to man that word is Endeavour. All through the 

 ages we may see Nature's condemnation of " the 

 unlit lamp and the ungirt loin." Nature is all for 

 efficiency, and down on slackness. 



(2) It has to be admitted, however, that, at 

 juncture after juncture, Nature offers the alterna- 



