138 SAVAGE SURVIVALS 



ning than at fighting. They have neither great 

 strength nor very good fighting implements. The 

 lion and rhinoceros, on the other hand, follow gen- 

 erally the fighting policy, because they are 

 equipped for it. Some species, therefore, are pre- 

 vailingly fleeing species, and are dominated by the 

 fear instinct, while other species are fighting spe- 

 cies, and are ruled commonly by the fighting urge. 

 But even the fleeing species contend more or less 

 among themselves for the possession of food and 

 other necessities of life. And in many passive 

 species the males wage fierce war for their 

 mates. 



The animal kingdom has been reared in a gory 

 cradle. This is especially true of man, who has 

 fought his way to a supremacy in the w^orld more 

 bloody and complete than that hitherto achieved 

 by any other species. The natural condition of 

 early man was that of war — war with other men 

 and with other animals. Peace w^as the exception. 

 Every being outside of the tribe of the savage was 

 an enemy and a legitimate object of plunder. 

 There w^ere alliances and counter-alliances. Men 

 sought ever to be on the winning side. Hence the 

 feebleness of human ties today among the higher 

 peoples of the earth, and the insecurity of peace 

 among the peoples of the w^orld. The ally of to- 

 day becomes the enemy of tomorrow, and the 

 friend of the past becomes the foe of the present. 

 This great facility we have for reversing our na- 

 tures is an inheritance. 



