INTRODUCTION 



OURS is a busy age, and it has little patience with long 

 dissertations. I have thought fit, therefore, to preface my 

 remarks by as brief as possible a statement of my case. 



The main conclusion which I wish to enforce is that the normal 

 relations between organisms, more particularly those having 

 regard to food, involve, quite indispensably, a stupendous amount 

 of systematic biological reciprocity, so that upon all organisms, 

 be they high or low in the scale of life, there devolve definite 

 duties and obligations, on pain of degeneration or destruction, 

 viz., to contribute in their several ways to the welfare of the 

 organic family as a whole. I consider the normal growth of 

 organic wealth in the shape of powers and capacities as not 

 dissimilar, and not inferior in importance, to that of the normal 

 growth of wealth in human societies. In either case wealth is 

 due to effort, genius, and to the co-operation of all in the 

 utilisation of natural riches. 



I regard the totality of organisms as a kind of world-society, 

 the various species and families of plants and animals being the 

 individuals of which this world-society is made up ; and, just as 

 in human societies, the progress and the success or happiness of 

 the individuals depend upon the character of their mutual 

 relations and behaviour, i.e., their conduct. As in human 

 societies, too, such conduct either makes for the good of the whole 

 and the parts or it does not, and so a quasi-moral character 

 belongs to all such " conduct " of individual species. The ways, 

 movements, efforts and aims of organisms are all in this sense 

 " good " or " bad," and there is, therefore, a biological morality 

 throughout, which does not, of course, involve conscious decision 

 or really ethical praise or blame of the individuals concerned. 

 My thesis with regard to evolution is that everything normal 

 and sound in organic evolution is due to biologically righteous, 

 i.e., essentially co-operative, behaviour ; whilst everything 

 abnormal and pathological is due to unrighteous, i.e., 



