242 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE LIFE OF OTHERS, 



and Co-operations induced in this way have played an 

 important part in Evolution. But the Co-operations 

 brought about by Reproduction are at once more 

 radical, more universal, and more efiBcient. The 

 Struggle for Life is in part a disruptive force. The 

 Struggle for the Life of Others is wholly a social 

 force. The social efforts of the first are secondary ; 

 those of the last are primary. And had it not been 

 for the stronger and unbreakable bond which the 

 Struggle for the Life of Others introduced into the 

 world the organization of Societies had never even 

 been begun. How subtly Reproduction effects its 

 purpose an illustration will make plain. And we 

 shall select it again from the lowest world of life, so 

 that the fundamental nature of this factor may be 

 once more vindicated on the way. 



More than two thousand years ago Herodotus ob- 

 served a remarkable custom in Egypt. At a certain 

 season of the year, the Egyptians went into the desert, 

 cut off branches from the wild palms, and, bringing 

 them back to their gardens, waved them over the 

 flowers of the date-palm. Why they performed this 

 ceremony they did not know ; but they knew that if 

 they neglected it, the date crop would be poor or 

 wholly lost. Herodotus offers the quaint explanation 

 that along with these branches there came from the 

 desert certain flies possessed of a "vivific virtue," 

 which somehow lent an exuberant fertility to the 

 dates. But the true rationale of the incantation is 

 now explained. Palm-trees, like human beings, are 

 male and female. The garden plants, the date- 

 bearers, were females , the desert plants were males ; 

 and the waving of the branches over the females 



