238 THE STRUGGLE FOR TUE LIFE OF OTHERS. 



Co-operation everywhere once more confronts us. It 

 is singular that, with few exceptions, science should 

 still know so little of the daily life of even the com- 

 mon animals. A few favorite mammals, some birds, 

 three or four of the more picturesque and clever of the 

 insects — these almost exhaust the list of those whose 

 ways are thoroughly known. But, looking broadly at 

 Nature, one general fact is striking — the more social 

 animals are in overwhelming preponderance over the 

 unsocial. Mr. Darwin's dictum, that " those commu- 

 nities which included the greatest number of the most 

 sympathetic members would flourish best," is wholly 

 proved. Run over the names of the commoner or 

 more dominant mammals, and it will be found that 

 they are those which have at least a measure of socia- 

 bility. The cat-tribe excepted, nearly all live together 

 in herds or troops — the elephant, for instance, the 

 buffalo, deer, antelope, wild-goat, sheep, wolf, jackal, 

 reindeer, hippopotamus, zebra, hyena, and seal. 

 These are mammals, observe — an association of socia- 

 bility in its highest developments with reproductive 

 specialization. Cases undoubtedly exist where the 

 sociability may not be referable primarily to this func- 

 tion ; but in most the chief Co-operations are centred 

 in Love. So advantageous are all forms of mutual 

 service that the question may be fairly asked whether 

 after all Co-operation and Sympathy — at first instinc- 

 tive, afterwards reasoned — are not the greatest facte 

 even in organic Nature ? To quote the words ol 

 Prince Kropotkin : "As soon as we study animals — 

 not in laboratories and museums only, but in the for- 

 est and the prairie, in the steppes and the mountains 

 — we at once perceive that though there is an im- 



