oo8 Mutual Aid as a Law of Nature 



more important law almost entirely because its 

 advocates have concentrated their attention upon 

 the combats between individuals which are of 

 different and non-associable species and therefore 

 naturally enemies. 



As a result of this one-sided interpretation of 

 evolution, a powerful support has been given 

 to the pessimistic spirit which has characterized 

 so much of nineteenth century philosophy. With 

 the distortion of the Darwinian theory and the 

 triumph of the philosophy of force, a great blight 

 fell upon all Christendom in the last quarter of the 

 century. In the intellectual life of the western 

 world all generous impulses towards justice, hu- 

 manity, and brotherhood, all the idealism which 

 is based on the fundamental social instincts of the 

 human race, and to a large extent all faith in relig- 

 ion, were crushed out by the resulting avalanche 

 of materialism. Yet the doctrines of the philo- 

 sophy of force are purely arbitrary and erroneous 

 and their overthrow awaits only the rational and 

 scientific study of the facts of that evolutionary 

 theory which the philosophy of force claims for its 

 scientific foundation. 



In reality alliance and combat are parallel 

 phenomena and in Nature that combination 

 results, which in each case favours the maximum 

 of vital intensity. Certain individuals and groups 

 are able to associate with each other and certain 

 others are not. The basic error of the philosophy 

 of force consists in considering only the latter and 



