THE STRUGGLE FOR THE LIFE OF OTHERS 313 



tinued existence that there should always be a 

 family group, or at least pair. The determination 

 of Nature to lay the foundation stone of corporate 

 national life at this point, and to embed Sociability 

 for ever in the constitution of humanity, is only 

 obvious when we reflect with what extraordinary 

 thoroughness this Evolution of Sex was carried 

 out. There is no instance in Nature of Division 

 of Labour being brought to such extreme special- 

 ization. The two sexes were not only set apart 

 to perform different halves of the same function, 

 but each so entirely lost the power of perform- 

 ing the whole function that, even with so great 

 a thing at stake as the continuance of the 

 species, one could not discharge it. Association, 

 combination, mutual help, fellowship, affection — 

 things on which all material and moral progress 

 would ultimately turn — were thus forced upon the 

 world at the bayonet's point. 



This hint, that the course of development is 

 taking a social, rather than an individual, direction, 

 is of immense significance. If that can be brought 

 about by the Struggle for the Life of Others — and 

 in the next chapters we shall see that it has been 

 — there can be no dispute about the rank of the 

 factor which consummates it. Along the line of the 

 physiological function of Reproduction, in associa- 



