104 SYMBIOGENESIS 



prostitution, and every variety of crime. The case of the lion 

 perhaps does not stand quite so badly as that of the 

 Ben ramasses man frequently using his endowment, as 

 Goethe says, in order to be " tierischer als jedes Tier" but 

 in either case we have here the final result of bio-economic 

 conduct which is decidedly negative. In either case the spirit 

 of the prophet Habakkuk's words very aptly applies : 

 "Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of 

 the people shall spoil thee." 



As soon as he comes to deal w r ith normal life, with conse- 

 quent normal growth, Spencer is unable to introduce his 

 illustrations quite so "manifestly" as in the case of the lion, 

 but has to admit, on the contrary, that in such instances " the 

 premises of the above argument (concerning the trade of the 

 street-vendor or huxter) are but very partially fulfilled." 



" Throughout the vegetable kingdom, the illustrations of 

 this truth are not conspicuous and regular : the obvious reason 

 being that plants are accumulators and in so small a degree 

 expenders." 



The expenditure and requirements of a photosynthetic 

 plant are reasonable and in keeping with its bio-economic 

 tasks. So far from being a spendthrift, it achieves surplus 

 and supplies the biological world with a large amount of 

 physiological values with a minimum amount of waste and 

 cost. What reason is there why its growth should be arrested 

 by " the equilibration of assimilation and waste," so long as it 

 maintains its positive ancestral dynamics ; so long as it, on the 

 whole, maintains a wholesome surplusage of work? A tree, as 

 Spencer admits, enjoys almost unlimited growth. It may 

 annually send forth new shoots, even when the trunk is 

 hollowed out by decay. And why should it not so long as it 

 remains truly useful? 



It is wrong to think, as some biologists do, that the 

 Malthusian doctrine anent population and the "struggle for 

 existence " is all that need to be taken into account in speaking 

 of the economy of Nature, and that it affords an unassailable 



