i3o8 LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



LESSONS FROM NATURE 



Competitive or Co-operative?— There is keen competition in 

 the Animal Kingdom, and there is also intimate co-operation, which 

 is most in the line of progressive evolution ? Among some animals 

 the rule of life is "Each for himself"; among others there is extra- 

 ordinary self -subordination, sometimes an almost fanatical service 

 of the community. Which way of living has been most rewarded 

 and which holds out most promise to man? Should he take the 

 individualistic badger or the socialistic bee for his totem? 



The struggle for existence is an often misunderstood technical 

 phrase for the manifold clash between living creatures and their 

 environing difficulties and limitations. It may be for food or for 

 foothold, for self-expression or for luxuries. It may be between 

 fellows of the same species, seedling against seedling, locust against 

 locust; or it may be between foes entirely different in nature, such 

 as carnivores and herbivores, birds of prey and mice ; or it may be 

 between the living creature and the changeful, callous, physical 

 environment, such as the cold and the drought. Sometimes it is not 

 the individual that struggles, but the community of which it forms 

 a part, as is clearly seen in the raids of the ants. 



Darwin was inclined to think that competition was most severe 

 between individuals and varieties of the same species, but he did 

 not give many instances. Apart from reference to the overcrowded 

 seed-plot and the like, he spoke chiefly of the competition between 

 different species of rats, cockroaches, bees, charlock, swallows, and 

 thrushes ; and even in regard to these he spoke not very convincedly 

 nor convincingly. 



Of great importance is it to appreciate Darwin's broad view of 

 the "Struggle for Existence", as in the sentence: "I use this term in 

 a large and metaphorical sense, including dependence of one being 

 on another, and including (which is more important) not only the 

 life of the individual, but success in leaving progeny." This sentence 

 is not itself very luminous, but it is evident from the context that 

 Darwin used the "Struggle for Existence" as a formula including all 

 the reactions and endeavours that living creatures make against 

 environing difficulties and limitations. And now we see the com- 

 petitive and the co-operative modes of life in their proper biological 

 setting. For they are the two chief ways of reacting in the struggle. 

 One way out is to intensify individual effort, to tighten the belt, to 

 set the teeth, to hustle and jostle, to strain and strive. This is the 

 way of the eagle and the lion. The other kind of reaction is to join 

 hands, to link lives, to practise mutual aid, to subordinate self, to 

 increase parental care and kin-sympathy. It is the way of the rook 

 and the beaver. Thus we see that the two modes of life that we wish 



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