THE KINSHIP OF LIFE. 



2 9 



tion. If we " put our heads together " we may know or 

 do everything. If we stand apart we can do nothing, 

 and in the struggle for existence those who can stand 

 shoulder to shoulder loyally have the promise of the 

 future. Those who can not hold together find every 

 man's hand raised against them. This principle holds 

 good whether applied to the directors of a hospital or 

 to a band of wolves. 



Whatever form the struggle for existence may take, 

 it is a permanent factor in all operations of life. Each 

 creature must take part in a threefold struggle with 

 like forms of life, with unlike forms of life or creatures 

 unlike itself, and with the conditions of life themselves. 

 Each man must, whether he will or not, compete with 

 his neighbours, must compete with other creatures, and 

 must be judged by the conditions of food, climate, and 

 environment under which life exists. Sometimes one 

 element will determine, sometimes another. In the city 

 one competes with his neighbours, in the jungle with 

 the beasts, and in the arctic with the elements of cold 

 and storm. In a similar way each animal has to justify 

 its existence. Co-operation may modify and dignify the 

 struggle for existence among men, but it can not set it 

 aside. It may change its point of incidence, but it can 

 not reduce its stress. Were it not for this struggle, which 

 calls out from each generation its best and strongest for 

 life purposes, there could be no progress in life. With- 

 out competition there could be no adaptation, without 

 selection there would not be a creature on earth to-day 

 higher than a toadstool ! 



It was a favourite saying of Agassiz that " Facts are 

 stupid things until brought into connection with some 

 general law." The law of descent, with change through 

 " natural selection," brings into organic connection a 

 host of facts hitherto isolated. Each one considered by 



