THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE 257 



discharged. The primary characteristic of proto- 

 plasm, the physical basis of all life, is Hunger, and 

 this has dictated the first law of being — " Thou 

 shalt eat." What distinguishes scientifically the 

 organic from the inorganic, the animal from the 

 stone ? That the animal eats, the stone does 

 not. Almost all achievement in the early history 

 of the living world has been due to Hunger. For 

 millenniums nearly the whole task of Evolution was 

 to perfect the means of satisfying it, and in so 

 doing to perfect life itself. The lowest forms of 

 life are little more than animated stomachs, and in 

 higher groups the nutritive system is the first to 

 be developed, the first to function, and the last to 

 cease its work. Almost wholly, indeed, in the 

 earlier vicissitude of the race, and largely in the 

 more ordered course of later times, Hunger rules 

 the life and work and destiny of men ; and so pro- 

 foundly does this mysterious deity still dominate 

 the round of even the highest life that the noblest 

 occupations which engage the human mind must 

 be interrupted two or three times a day to do it 

 homage. 



Whatever Man came ultimately to wish and to 

 achieve for himself, it was essential at first that 

 such arrangements should be made for him. The 

 machinery for his development had not only to be 



