228 SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR 
in societies,” says Prince Kropotkine, “is no exception in the 
animal world. It is the rule, the law of nature, and it reaches 
its fullest development with the higher vertebrates. Those 
species which live solitary, or in small families only, are re- 
latively few, and their numbers are limited.”* “Life in 
societies enables the feeblest insects, the feeblest birds, and 
the feeblest mammals to resist, or to protect themselves from, 
the most terrible birds and beasts of prey ; it permits longevity ; 
it enables the species to rear its progeny with the least waste 
of energy, and to maintain its numbers, albeit with a very 
slow birth-rate ; it enables the gregarious animals to migrate 
in search of new abodes. Therefore, while fully admitting 
that force, swiftness, protective colours, cunningness, and 
endurance to hunger and cold, which are mentioned by Darwin 
and Wallace, are so many qualities making the individual or 
the species the fittest under certain circumstances, we maintain 
that under any circumstances sociability is the greatest 
advantage in the struggle for life... . The fittest are thus 
the most sociable animals, and sociability appears as the chief 
factor in evolution, both directly, by securing the well-being 
of the species while diminishing the waste of energy, and 
indirectly by favouring the growth of intelligence.” t And 
summarizing his argument, Prince Kropotkine says,t “ We 
have seen how few are the animal species which live an isolated 
life, and how numberless are those which live in societies, 
either for mutual defence, or for hunting and storing up food, 
or for rearing their offspring, or simply for enjoying life in 
common. We have also seen that, though a good deal of 
warfare goes on between different species, or even different 
tribes of the same species, peace and mutual support are 
the rule within the tribe, or the species; and that those 
species which best know how to combine, and to avoid com- 
petition, have the best chances of survival and of further 
* Op. cit., pp. 709,710. 
t. Page 711. 
t “Mutual Aid among Savages.” Nineteenth Century, vol. xxix. 
April, 1891, p. 538. 
