THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 93 



tive of parasitism, and there are thousands of living 

 creatures that have followed this line of least re- 

 sistance with its reward of adult safety and complete 

 material well-being, with its nemesis of degeneracy. 

 To man also this alternative is offered, and it is 

 not infrequently, in part at least, accepted, both 

 by lower and by higher stocks, and always with 

 inevitably attendant dangers. Let us recall Mere- 

 dith's verse : 



Behold the life of ease, it drifts. 



The sharpened life commands its course : 



She winnows, winnows roughly, sifts, 



To dip her chosen in her source. 



Contention is the vital force 



Whence pluck they brain, her prize of gifts. 



(3) As among animals, so among men, disturb- 

 ances of equilibrium and conflict of interests bring 

 about struggle, and there are always two chief lines 

 of solution (besides that of partial parasitism). 

 The one is increased intensity of competition ; the 

 other is increased combination and mutual aid. 

 From the biologist's point of view it is important 

 to make clear that Nature has rewarded both these 

 lines of solution with survival, and that the line 

 of mutual aid and sociality has been especially 

 justified by psychical progress. We may take it 

 that, as it has been in the past, survival and pro- 

 gress will continue to be the rewards of those 

 nations in which there is not only valour in com- 

 petition (more and more shifted from the battle- 

 fields), but the virtue of loyal subordination of 

 individual to communal interests. 



(4) With the spread of civilisation the character 

 of the struggle for existence among men has 



