EVOLUTIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 65 



of the subject that interest us. The connection noted by Spencer 

 between sympathy, gregariousness and food, is in reality a very 

 ancient and important one. It existed before " group-morality " 

 and " group-sympathy " inasmuch as the essential factors 

 constituting the connection were already present and co- 

 operating, namely ; in Symbiosis, a most successful association 

 of biological partners, which, as I have shown, operated with 

 stimulative, integrative and directive force at the very dawn 

 of life subsequently contriving to expand its range and to 

 engender new and more potent forms of protoplasm. Sym- 

 biosis has been shown to represent the most effective form of 

 mutual service, calculated to generate ever better means of supply- 

 ing food pari passu with increasing bio-chemical perfection. 

 The highly vitalised food in turn engenders increased power 

 and capacities amongst biological complements or " partners " 

 and concomitantly stimulates the growth of Sympathy and of 

 Bio-morality. 



Spencer, of course, was not unaware of the great antiquity 

 at least of the roots of Sympathy. In his Principles of 

 Psychology he urges that the origin of Sympathy must be 

 traced back to sexual and parental relations. The sexual 

 relation, however, according to him, " can be expected to further 

 the development of Sympathy in a considerable degree only if 

 it has considerable permanence " (italics mine). 



This qualification of " permanence " is of some special signi- 

 ficance. The need of permanence applies indeed in the develop- 

 ment of sympathy and of gregariousness quite as much as in 

 the case of Sex and of Symbiosis. We may conclude that there 

 is one and the same underlying reason. For, in order to achieve 

 a wide biological usefulness the requisite of survival and of 

 success there has to be^ a perennial performance of well- 

 regulated services and a permanent and complex system of division 

 of labour ; all of which depends in turn upon the gradual 

 establishment of commensurate habits, commensurate adaptations 

 and co-adaptations, involving protracted exercise, protracted 

 endeavour, and long protracted wholesome intimacy. The 

 same factors, indeed, that all along have furthered Symbiosis, 

 also furthered the evolution of Sex and of Sympathy ; and these 

 factors are in the main : work, coupled with moderation, 

 restraint with commensurate " sociological" duties paramount 

 amongst which is the demand for a " live and let live " policy. 



