thirteen] securing OUR ALLIES 



through the skies. It is not uncommon to find 

 strong friendships growing up among our domestic 

 animals. A Morgan mare in my stables became so 

 deeply interested in a Leicester sheep that she 

 would share her hay and provender with evident 

 pleasure. Billy would jump into an adjacent man- 

 ger, and with common sense take no more than his 

 half. Each one would pull a mouthful from the 

 hay, and then draw back to give the other a chance. 

 It is altogether misleading to talk of the struggle for 

 existence as a principle covering all that is going 

 on throughout animate nature. The spirit of mu- 

 tual aid is quite as general as the struggle for 

 existence. 



Our highest moral life is reached in that altruism 

 which makes our responsibility broad enough to 

 secure the happiness of inferior animals. This 

 duty widens into religion, when we recognize the 

 fact that we are children of God only as we are 

 divinely good and cooperators with the Creator. 

 This cooperation gets to be a very important part 

 of human evolution. We have to learn, above all, 

 to distinguish those creatures that can be made 

 compeers, assistants, or collateral workers. The 

 whole of human history contains no fact more re- 



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