Absorption and Elimination 8i 



many and Denmark, to the struggle by absorption, 

 such as the combat between a Hon and a gazelle, 

 the philosophy of force becomes involved in 

 several fallacies. The chief one is that the Ger- 

 mans and the Danes can form an association while 

 the lion and the gazelle cannot form an association 

 from the nature of the combat. In order to 

 establish the analogy, however, the philosophy of 

 force falls into a still greater error. By a process 

 of mental abstraction it makes of all Germans a 

 single being equal to the lion and of all the Danes 

 a single being like the gazelle. But a combat 

 between Germany and Denmark is an impossi- 

 bility. The combat can take place between some 

 Germans and some Danes in flesh and blood who 

 line up opposite each other and commence to 

 massacre each other. As soon as we descend 

 from general similes to consider the concrete 

 realities, it is evident that the analogy will not 

 stand criticism. If the struggle for existence 

 takes place between human societies it must be 

 accomplished by processes which have nothing 

 in common with physiological absorption between 

 individuals of different species in the animal 

 kingdom. 



The process of elimination is practised most 

 often among plants. It consists in monopolizing 

 the necessities of life in such a way as to force 

 the rival to die of starvation. The struggle by 

 elimination takes place among trees which struggle 

 for light in a forest. The strongest overshadow 



