290 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



die, it abideth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth 

 forth much fruit." 



These facts are not coloured to suit a purpose. 

 There is no other language in which science itself 

 can state them. " Reproduction begins as rupture. 

 Large cells beginning to die, save their lives by 

 sacrifice. Reproduction is literally a life-saving 

 against the approach of death. Whether it be the 

 almost random rupture of one of the more primitive 

 forms such as SchizogeneSy or the overflow and 

 separation of multiple buds as in Arcella^ or the 

 dissolution of a few of the Infusorians, an organism, 

 which is becoming exhausted, saves itself and multi- 

 plies in reproducing."^ There is no Reproduction 

 in plant, animal, or Man which does not involve 

 self-sacrifice. All that is moral, and social, and 

 other-regarding has come along the line of this 

 function. Sacrifice, moreover, as these physiological 

 facts disclose, is not an accident, nor an accom- 

 paniment of Reproduction, but an inevitable part 

 of it. It is the universal law and the universal 

 condition of life. The act of fertilization is the 

 anabolic restoration, renewal, and rejuvenescence of 

 a katabolic cell : it is a resurrection of the dead 

 brought about by a sacrifice of the living, a dying 

 of part of life in order to further life. 

 * Thf EvQlution of Sex^ page 232. 



