THE STRUGGLE FOR THE LIFE OF OTHERS. 223 



find in the mere physiological process of Reproduction 

 a physical forecast of the higher relations, or, more 

 accurately, to find the higher relations manifesting 

 themselves at first through physical relations. The 

 Struggle for the Life of Others formed an indispen- 

 sable stepphig-stone to the development of the Other- 

 regarding virtues. Nature always works with long 

 roots. To conduct Other-ism upward into the higher 

 sphere without miscarriage, and to establish it there 

 forever, Nature had to embed it in the most ancient 

 past, so organizing and endowing protoplasm that life 

 could not go on without it, and compelling its contin- 

 uous activity by the sternest physiological necessity. 



To say that tliere is a certain protest of the mind 

 against associating the highest ethical ends with forces 

 in their first stage almost physical, is to confess a 

 truth which all must feel. Even Ilaeckel, in contrast- 

 ing the tiny rootlet of sex-attraction between two 

 microscopic cells with the mighty after-efiiorescence ot 

 love in the history of mankind, is staggered at the 

 audacity of the thought, and pauses in the heart of 

 a profound scientific investigation to reflect upon it. 

 After a panegyric in which he says, " We glorify love 

 AS the source of the most splendid creations of art ; of 

 the noblest productions of poetry, of plastic art, and of 

 music ; we reverence in it the most powerful factor in 

 human civilization, the basis of family life, and, conse- 

 quently, of the development of the state ; "... he 

 adds, " So wonderful is love, and so immeasurably 

 important is its influence on mental life, that in this 

 point, more than in any other, ' supernatural ' causa- 

 tion seems to mock every natural explanation." It is 

 the mystery of Nature, that between the loftiest 



