EGOISM IN THE HUMAN RACE 225 



in the present age apply to the condition of man in 

 earlier times. 



The Human Struggle for Existence 



Originally, men were much more nearly on an 

 equality than they are at present. Practically equal 

 in physical power, with slight variations in mental 

 ability, and with no possibility for the development 

 of that power which comes from the artificial organ- 

 ization of society, primitive men must all have been 

 practically on the same plane. As such they must 

 have been engaged in a struggle for existence with 

 each other and with the lower animals very much 

 like that which the lower animals have with each 

 other. But as soon as organization began the indi- 

 vidual ceased to be the unit toward which the strug- 

 gle for existence was directed. The individual ceased 

 to have success independent of his family, and from 

 this moment selection no longer preserved the best 

 equipped individual but the best equipped family. 

 This was true in early history when the family main- 

 tained itself only by being able to hold its own 

 against other families — and it is also true in modern 

 life, amid the inconceivably confusing relations of 

 our great centers of civilization. Even in modern 

 society, while the ability of the individual to hold his 

 own amid his environment is a factor in human 

 struggle, it is after all only that family that can prop- 

 erly produce and rear its children that really suc- 

 ceeds in the struggle for existence. Thus from early 

 times till to-day the family has been the unit toward 

 which natural selection has been directed. 



In our study of the relation of man to natural 

 selection, we must bear in mind that this great law 



