176 SYiMBlOGENESIS 



beautiful is because we get the impression of utility, 

 goodness, wholesomeness, moderation, and harmony generally. 

 According to Aristotle, there is more both of beauty and of 

 raison d'etre in the works of nature than in those of art. It is 

 in large measure this raison d'etre, I hold, which constitutes 

 the beauty and symmetry of natural things. It is thus more 

 than a mere coincidence that the words symmetry, symbiosis 

 and sympathy show an etymological connection. 



It is generally but falsely represented that reproduction 

 constitutes the chief raison d'etre of organisms. But it is work 

 and service rather than redundancy that the world demands 

 from every race. To be is to be active, and this in a social 

 sense. Reproduction unless morbidly distorted is likewise sub- 

 ordinate to this demand, and really assists in the segregation 

 of that which is most valuable in a race from that which is 

 becoming relatively inferior. If the bio-economic contribution 

 of a species be steady and important, if it take a conspicuous 

 share in determining the world in leaving it the richer rather 

 than the poorer for its presence it sets up wholesome 

 and balancing reactions by which it in turn benefits. As a 

 consequence of such mutual determination, a species bears the 

 stamp of balance and of symmetry of beauty that is more 

 than skin-deep. It is very significant that the higher we rise 

 in the animal scale the less evidence there is of antithesis of 

 size, i.e., of sexual dimorphism, of metamorphosis, partial 

 dissimilarity of offspring and of redundancy. On the other 

 hand, depredation, by causing a distorted and unreliable 

 supply of impure blood, from which results abnormality 

 of growth, leads to distortion of form and size. Everywhere 

 parasitism and distortion of form are closely associated and 

 strikingly and obviously mark a movement along the path that 

 leads to extinction. " Everywhere," says Dr. Woods 

 Hutchinson, " the habitual murderers, the professional 

 assassins and liers-in-wait, like the alligator, the rattlesnake, 

 the puff-adder, and the shark, bear the brand of Cain on every 

 inch of their surface in their dull, muddy, blotchy colours, 



