﻿THE RIGHT TO LIVE 



acteristics of life, but have arisen to meet the 

 demands of existence in a too changeable 

 world, and that even death is a "concession 

 to the outer conditions of life." Natural 

 death may be regarded as a phylogenic inci- 

 dent, and accidental death as an ontogenic 

 incident. 



The argument here outlined, but which can 

 not be adequately developed, is intended to 

 show that reproduction is partly, and death 

 wholly an adaptation, and that these can no 

 more be said to be the purposes of living 

 than can other adaptations, such as the an- 

 nual production of winter buds on trees, and 

 on such herbaceous plants as the tiger lily. 

 Furthermore, the logic of excessive increase 

 and consequent inadequacy of food does not 

 warrant us in assuming that present forms 

 of existence do not possess a natural right to 

 the greatest longevity and fullest develop- 

 ment which their individual opportunities 

 permit them to secure. The individual is lim- 

 ited in the duration of its active period and in 

 the expenditure of its energies by the inherited 

 adaptations imposed by the conditions under 

 which its ancestry has lived, and these limita- 

 tions are necessarily passed on to its off- 

 spring, but its right to the full measure of its 

 opportunities for self-development can not 

 therefore be withheld. It must be true that 



Plants are 

 born to live 



