The Evolution of Organisms 175 



tlon — a nutritive struggle of variable intensity. 

 But organisms are also reproductive, they have 

 species-regarding activities, altruistic impulses. 

 The careful brooding mother-bird is de facto al- 

 truistic. Hence, in part, a reproductive struggle, 

 in v^hich love may be stronger than hunger — a 

 reproductive factor in evolution which is not wholly 

 concerned with self-gratificatioa, but with self- 

 sacrifice as well. 



The important points are (1) that many of the 

 big lifts in animal evolution, such as the origin of 

 multicellular organisms or the origin of the mam- 

 malian type, imply the success of variations which 

 cannot be regarded as of immediate individual 

 advantage; (2) in the process of selection the pre- 

 mium on teeth and claws, or beaks and talons, is no 

 greater than that on *'the milk of animal kind- 

 ness" and the warmth of the maternal heart; 

 (3) the struggle for existence is often a quiet en- 

 deavour after well being. There is much gregari- 

 ousness, there are many peaceful solutions of 

 difficulty, there is frequent combination for de- 

 fence and attack, there is a strong feeling of kin- 

 ship, there is frequent cooperation and mutual 

 aid. The world, Diderot says, is the abode of the 

 strong; but it is also the home of the loving.* 



1 We do not quote Nietzsche as an authority, but it is 

 interesting that one who preached the gospel of the 

 strong, and regarded the real thing in Nature as the 



