302 THE ISSUES OF LIFE 



world in the progressive modification of organic beings 

 mutual support among individuals plays a much more im- 

 portant part than their mutual struggle ". Prof. Patrick 

 Geddes also argued that the popular version of the Darwinian 

 picture had become distorted into falseness, and advanced 

 illustrations of the evolutionary role of other-regarding as 

 opposed to self-gratifying activities, and of the survival- 

 value of subordinating the self to the species. Prof. Henry 

 Drummond in his Lowell Lectures gave an eloquent expo- 

 sition of the importance of the struggle for others as con- 

 trasted with the struggle for self. Best of all, because most 

 concrete, were Prince Kropotkin's essays on Mutual Aid. 

 With a wealth of illustration he showed the pervasiveness 

 of mutual aid and mutual support in the Animal Kingdom. 

 To him it seemed as much a law of life as mutual struggle, 

 and " of the greatest importance for the maintenance of life, 

 the preservation of each species, and its further evolution ". 

 Now while it is useful to hold over against aggressive 

 competition the fact of mutual aid, there is a more radical 

 way of stating the case. The idea of two struggles, one 

 for self, and one for others, is artificial, and it must be 

 borne in mind that there is much self-expression and much 

 self-subordination which has no direct connection with strug- 

 gle in the technical sense ; witness, for instance, the ex- 

 pression of a well-adapted parental nature that is not meet- 

 ing with any particular difficulties or limitations. How is 

 the case to be stated ? By going back to Darwin's position. 

 Self-assertive organisms, whose inmost nature is endeavour, 

 find themselves faced with baffling difficulties, hemmed in by 

 thwarting limitations. Whenever the creature answers back 

 in an individual way, girding up its loins against these 

 difficulties and hurling itself against these limitations, there 



