60 SYMBIOSIS 



above definitions ? It is probable that such types were thus 

 capable of living and flourishing on the lifeless earth even before 

 the advent of continuous sunshine and plant-life. 



In previous chapters we have seen how bacterial life provides 

 evidence showing that the evolution of life depended primarily 

 upon wholesome industry, associated with non-predaceous modes 

 of obtaining food. I would emphasise here in particular that 

 such " legitimate " methods of life alone make possible a fruitful 

 Symbiosis. Many of these organisms, moreover, do not live on 

 organic food in any shape or form. They refuse, in other words, 

 to live indolently or predaceously at the expense of other creatures 

 such modes of life not being compatible with genuine Symbiosis. 

 It has been shown that the smallest trace of organic carbon or 

 nitrogen compounds are actually injurious to them. Where is 

 there any infliction of pain upon other sentient creatures habitually 

 resulting, as alleged, from the food requirements of honest toilers ? 

 And how can it be said in view of these fundamental and far- 

 reaching facts alone, that the highest results in evolution are 

 due to warfare, famine, death and unscrupulous exploitation 

 of one organism or species by another ? Truly, the symbiotic 

 relation represents, in Ruskin's words, the service of Wisdom, 

 the Lady of Health Madonna della Salute " differing vastly 

 from the service of Death, the Lord of Waste, and of eternal 

 emptiness." At the lowliest stage of life, where, according to 

 current theories, it would appear as foolish to look for morals 

 or sympathy, where, according to allegations, one should expect 

 to find " struggle " et preterea nihil ; we find a state of individual 

 and collective integrity so high as to make one feel inclined to 

 supplement the scriptural " Go to the ant, thou sluggard " with 

 the further admonition : " Remember the bacterium." 



We find mutual aid based upon mutual trust and this in the 

 absence of any conditions necessitating antagonism. Emphati- 

 cally we must repudiate the belief that the habitual infliction of 

 pain is according to the normal course of Nature. It is, on the 

 contrary, associated with the abnormal, the degenerative phase 

 of Nature. If those writers who are so sure in their denials of 

 morality in Nature, would but ponder these things and the fact 

 that in their own expositions they can scarcely ever get away 

 from the use of such all-important terms as " obedience," " duty," 

 " good conduct," etc., etc.-, which do not belong at all to " pure 

 biology," save in so far as it is duly expanded into Bio-Economics. 



