EGOISM IN THE HUMAN RACE 229 



But agriculture has not entirely freed man from 

 his struggle against starvation. To-day, as in early 

 centuries, lack of food is frequently the great stim- 

 ulus to advance. It has developed the colonizing 

 habits of those nations that, in the last five hundred 

 years, have been gradually taking possession of all 

 the good lands of the earth; for it is not until food 

 becomes difficult to procure at home that individuals 

 think of emigrating. Lack of food produced that 

 outburst of individualism, the French Eevolution. 

 Indeed, most revolutions, or, at least, most upris- 

 ings of the masses against their rulers, find their 

 immediate cause in a lack of sufficient food for the 

 need of all individuals. Even to-day, with our im- 

 proved agriculture, we have not entirely freed our- 

 selves from the struggle for existence with nature. 

 Every few years a famine in some densely populated 

 country like India, carries off its millions of victims ; 

 and the constant rise in the cost of living is a sure 

 indication that we are still struggling for life with 

 the conditions of nature. Lack of food holds in check 

 the process of multiplication, which even in slow- 

 breeding man is a power so wonderful as to insure, 

 if unchecked, the crowding of the world in a compar- 

 atively few years. 



Nevertheless, the development of agriculture has 

 freed us in considerable degree from the struggle for 

 food which dominates savage tribes. With our pres- 

 ent knowledge enough food is produced each year for 

 the support of all the population in the world. In- 

 stead of having a smaller and smaller amount of 

 food for each individual, the development of agri- 

 culture is causing a larger amount to be produced. 

 Thus far, at least, the supply of food has outrun the 



