THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE 273 



blow will be struck from a deeper source. It is 

 impossible to conceive that the Ascent of Man 

 should always depend upon his appetites, that " in 

 God's world there should be nothing better to 

 attract him than food and raiment, that he should 

 take no single step towards a higher life, except 

 when driven to it. As there comes a time in a 

 child's life when coercion gives place to free and 

 conscious choice, the day comes to the world 

 when the aspirations of the spirit begin to com- 

 pete with, to neutralize, and to supplant the 

 compulsions of the body. Against that day, in 

 the heart of humanity, Nature had made full 

 provision. For there, prepared by a profounder 

 chemistry than that which was to relieve the 

 strain on the physical side, had gathered through 

 the ages a force in whose presence the energies 

 of the Animal Struggle are as naught. Beside 

 the Struggle for the Life of Others the Struggle 

 for Life is but a passing phase. As old, as 

 deeply sunk in Nature, this further force was 

 destined from the first to replace the Struggle 

 for Life, and to build a nobler superstructure 

 on the foundations which it laid. To establish 

 these foundations was all that the Animal 

 Struggle was ever designed to do. It has laid 

 them well ; yet it is only when the Struggle 



