THE STRUGGLE FOR THE LIFE OF OTHERS. 239 



mense amount of warfare and extermination going on 

 amidst various species, and especially amidst various 

 classes of animals, there is, at the same time, as much, 

 or perhaps more, of mutual support, mutual aid, and 

 mutual defence, amidst animals belonging to the same 

 species or, at least, to the same society. Sociability is 

 as Uiuch a law of Nature as mutual struggle. . . . 

 If we resort to an indirect test and ask Nature ' Who 

 are the fittest : those who are continually at war with 

 each other, or those who support one another ? ' we at 

 once see that those animals which acquire habits of 

 mutual aid are undoubtedly the fittest. They have 

 more chances to survive, and they attain, in their re- 

 spective classes, the highest development of intelli- 

 gence and bodily organization. If the numberless 

 facts which can be brought forward to support this 

 view are taken into account, we may safely say that 

 mutual aid is as much a law of animal life as mutual 

 struggle ; but that, as a factor of evolution, it most 

 probably has a far greater importance, inasmuch as it 

 favors the development of such habits and character 

 as insure the maintenance and further development of 

 the species, together with the greatest amount of wel- 

 fare and enjoyment of life for the individual, with the 

 least waste of energy." ^ 



In the large economy of Nature, almost more than 

 within these specific regions, the inter-dependence of 

 part with part is unalterably established. The sys> 

 tern of things, from top to bottom, is an uninterrupted 

 series of reciprocities. Kingdom corresponds with 

 kingdom, organic with inorganic. Thus, to carry on 

 the larger agriculture of Nature, myriads of living 

 ^ Nineteenth Century^ 1890, p. 340. 



