6 7 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



all packs, herds, and communities of animals there is some subor- 

 dination of self-will to secure the realization of the universal will 

 in social existence. And the higher we ascend in the scale of 

 gregariousness the more conspicuous does co-operation become, 

 until among the higher races of civilized man we find that it has 

 in some degree transferred the pressure of the struggle for ex- 

 istence from the individual to the body corporate, and that it 

 tends to do so more and more. Social organization is loose and 

 shadowy when compared with that of living beings, and differ- 

 entiation of structure and function in it are partial and ill- 

 defined, but still it is readily perceived that its development is 

 regulated by a social process which, although it may seem to 

 emerge from environment and the struggle for life, clearly im- 

 plies as it goes on not only the harmonious coexistence of differ- 

 ent classes differently employed and interested in a larger life 

 than their own, that of the system or nation of which they form 

 a part, but the subjection of individual self-assertion to social 

 growth, in accordance with some social ideal or, shall we say, 

 design. In the social not less than in the organic process we see 

 pause given to the life struggle and the co-operation of diverse 

 parts to a common end. In highly civilized societies certain 

 classes propertied and pensioned classes are practically re- 

 lieved from the struggle for existence by the operation of moral 

 restraints, and it is the avowed aim of state socialism to make 

 that struggle less and less the concern of the individual and more 

 and more that of the state. In the intercourse between nation 

 and nation traces of co-operation may be recognized. 



But it is in sexual relations far more than in the organic or so- 

 cial process that the embryonic forms and cotyledons of the moral 

 sentiments that among mankind, when in full leaf and blossom, 

 mask and overshadow and sometimes choke natural selection may 

 be most clearly recognized. Nutrition is everywhere egotistic, 

 but reproduction is invariably altruistic in its character. In its 

 lowest form, where two exhausted cells flow together, reproduc- 

 tion corresponds with what has been designated protoplasmic 

 hunger ; but wherever true sexual union takes place we have ac- 

 tivities that are other, regarding and whenever genuine maternity 

 is differentiated we have hints of self-sacrifice. Sexual prefer- 

 ences and the selection of mates have obvious reference to the 

 continuance of the species and the welfare of the offspring and 

 imply co-operation, and the fatality that attends the triumph of 

 motherhood represents the immolation of the individual for the 

 collective advantage. Among the insects we have the pairing of 

 mates preceded by courtship and followed by associated industry, 

 as in the aterechus, where the male and female beetle disinterest- 

 edly toil together in rolling up receptacles for their unborn off- 



