358 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



this moment onwards must grow from more to 

 more. For observe what has happened. A gener- 

 ation has grown up to whom this tie is the necessity 

 of existence. Every Mammalian child born into 

 the world must come to be fed, must, for a given 

 number of hours each day, be in the maternal 

 school, and whether it like it or not, learn its 

 lessons. No young of any Mammal can nourish 

 itself. There is that in it therefore at this stage 

 v/hich compels it to seek its Mother ; and there 

 is that in the Mother which compels it even physi- 

 cally — and this is the fourth process, on which it 

 is needless to dwell — to seek her child. On the 

 physiological side, the name of this impelling power 

 is lactation ; on the ethical side, it is Love. And 

 there is no escape henceforth from communion 

 between Mother and child, or only one — death. 

 Break this new bond and the Mammalia become 

 extinct. Nature is in earnest here, if anywhere. 

 The training of Humanity is seen to be under a 

 compulsory education act. It is in the severity 

 and dread of her penalties, coupled with the im- 

 possibility of evading the least of them, that the 

 will of Nature and the seriousness of her purposes 

 are most declared. For the physiological gains 

 which underlie these ethical relations are all- 

 important. It is largely owing to them that the 



