310 Mutual Aid as a Law of Nature 



phenomena of association at any of the phases of 

 vital evolution and as a result they would have been 

 compelled to perceive that the relations between 

 associable beings are different from those between 

 non-associable beings. 



Although we live within an association, compara- 

 tively few persons comprehend its true nature. 

 We always experience the greatest difficulty in 

 * observing in any scientific and objective manner 

 the phenomena of which we are an integral part. 

 I The elementary truth is hardly recognized that 

 . association is only a means serving to increase the 

 vital intensity of the individual. Society exists 

 only for the benefit of its members, not its mem- 

 bers for the benefit of society. This fact is ignored 

 entirely by the philosophy of force. The error 

 is emphasized in that theory of the State, which is 

 set forth by von Treitschke and is common among 

 all defenders of militarism. They forget entirely 

 that great as may be the efforts made for the 

 prosperity of the State, yet the claims of the State 

 are nothing in themselves and become something 

 only in so far as they embody the claims of its 

 component individuals. This is the significance 

 of the factor of mutual aid. It results in an 

 increase of vital intensity for those who employ it. 

 This is the reason that it is the chief factor of evolu- 

 tion among beings capable of association. Since 

 the increase of vital intensity is the direct object 

 of mutual aid, we can understand why evolution 

 is so much more rapid in a society of associable 



