THE STRUGGLE FOR THE LIFE OF OTHERS 289 



can devise some way of gaining more surface it 

 must starve. Hence the splitting into two smaller 

 cells. There is now more absorbing surface than 

 the two had when combined. When the two 

 smaller cells have grown as large as the original 

 parent, income and expenditure will once more 

 balance. As growth continues, the waste begins 

 to exceed the power of repair and the life of 

 the cell is again threatened. The alternatives are 

 obvious. It must divide, or die. If it divides, 

 what has saved its life ? Self-sacrifice. By giving 

 up its life as an individual it has brought forth 

 two individuals, and these will one day repeat the 

 surrender. Here, with differences appropriate to 

 their distinctive spheres, is the first great act of the 

 moral life. All life, in the beginning, is self-con- 

 tained, self-centred, imprisoned in a single cell. The 

 first step to a more abundant life is to get rid of 

 this limitation. And the first act of the prisoner 

 is simply to break the walls of its cell. The plant 

 does this by a mechanical or physiological process; 

 the moral being by a conscious act which means 

 at once the breaking-up of Self-ism and the re- 

 covery of a larger self in Altruism. Biologically, 

 Reproduction begins as rupture. It is the release 

 of the cell, full-fed, yet unsatiated, from itself 

 " Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and 



