1204 LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



with general ideas, we cannot regard them as ethical in the strict 

 sense. Their behaviour does not rise into conduct, whereas man's 

 normally does. But while animals cannot be called ethical, they have 

 ftie raw materials of some of the virtues — such as courage, sympathy, 

 affection, and self- subordination. These strands are of ancient origin, 

 and the}^ have entered into Man's fabric, though doubtless trans- 

 muted in the new synthesis that emerged when man became man, a 

 new creature of rational discourse. But there is interest and more 

 than interest in the fact that strands of primordial virtue have 

 formed part of man's pre-human inheritance. In bygone days we 

 heard much about original sin ; we need to hear more about original 

 righteousness. Man cannot be a moral Melchisedek, "without 

 descent", and it is of value to recognise that there is momentum 

 with him at his best, as well as with him at his worst. As Tennyson 

 said, we have "to let the ape and tiger die" ; but we have also to let 

 animal courage and animal s\^mpathy live. 



We have just been hinting at the evolution of ethics, but, finally, 

 there is another inquiry not to be forgotten — the ethics of evolution. 

 To some who have looked at the process of organic evolution through 

 spectacles of prejudice, it has seemed to be abhorrent — "red in tooth 

 and claw with rapine", "every hedgerow shrieking with bloodshed", 

 "an incessant Hobbesian warfare of each against all", "a dismal 

 cockpit", "a deadly race in which each is for himself and elimination 

 takes the hindmost". But this is a nightmare view of Animate 

 Nature. For while the whole scheme certainly depends on successive 

 re-incarnations, and while struggle and sifting must be recognised 

 as not only conspicuous but essential, there is another side to the 

 picture. The struggle for existence is rarely an internecine battle 

 around the platter of subsistence, it is often describable as an 

 endeavour after well-being. As Darwin clearly indicated, the struggle 

 for existence includes all the answers-back that living creatures make 

 to environing difficulties and limitations. It includes the softer 

 quilting of the nest as well as the sharpening of teeth and claws; 

 it includes parental care and mutual aid as well as aggressive elbow- 

 ing and fierce competition. 



What seems to stand out clearly is that Nature gives premier 

 places to creatures like Birds and Mammals which are good lovers 

 and good parents, which practise, all unknown to themselves, what 

 we call self-subordination and the other-regarding virtues. To speak 

 metaphorically. Nature is all for health and all for beauty; but to 

 that we must add that she often leans her weight in favour of warm- 

 hearted kindliness and nimble wits. To speak more scientifically, 

 there is a survival value, not only in positive health and the harmony 

 of constitution which expresses itself as beauty, but also in parental 

 care and kin-sympathy, and in the clear-headedness which often 

 goes with vigour. Thus it seems not far-fetched but true to say that 



