ib tNTRODUCTIOl^ 



as It was created. For hours, or days, or weeks 

 in the early infancy of all higher animals, maternal 

 care and sympathy are a condition of existence. 

 Altruism had to enter the world, and any species 

 which neglected it was extinguished in a genera- 

 tion. 



No doubt a case could be made out likewise for 

 the imperative value of the Struggle for Life. The 

 position has just been granted. So far from dis- 

 puting it, we assume it to be equally essential to 

 Nature and to a judgment upon the process ol 

 Evolution. But what is disputed is that the Struggle 

 for Life is either the key to Nature, or that it 

 is more important in itself than the Struggle for 

 the Life of Others. It is pitiful work pitting the 

 right hand against the left, the heart against the 

 head ; but if it be insisted that there is neither 

 right hand nor heart, the proclamation is necessary 

 not only that they exist, but that absolutely they 

 are as important and relatively to ethical Man of 

 infinitely greater moment than anything that func- 

 tions either in the animal or social organism. 



But why, if all this be true of the Struggle for 

 the Life of Others, has a claim so imperious not 

 been recognized by science ? That a phenomenon 

 of this distinction should have attracted so little 

 attention suggests a suspicion. Does it really exist? 



