All Progress Due to Mutual Aid 315 



object is enjoyment, satisfaction, happiness. If as- 

 sociation produces more enjoyment than struggle, > 

 association will take place. Nature is supremely 

 indifferent in regard to the choice of processes. 

 The advantage is found on the side of that process 

 which favours most the greatest intensification of 

 life. Struggle cannot produce as powerful an 

 exaltation of vital force as that which can be pro- 

 duced by association. As a consequence we find 

 that association dominates in an immense number 

 of cases. It is estimated by the naturalist that 

 there are on the earth 150,000 species of plants and 

 100,000 species of animals. When we consider the 

 enormous number of individuals which constitute 

 certain species, the number of associations which 

 exist on the planet must be counted by billions 

 of billions, since every metazoa is an association. 

 Kropotkin tells how his attention was called to 

 the futility of struggle and the effectiveness of 

 mutual aid as a factor of evolution, by his observa- 

 tions of the garrison of a city which had undergone 

 a long and severe siege. As a result of this severe 

 struggle, many of the garrison died during the 

 course of the siege, and when they were at last 

 relieved, instead of any progress taking place as a 

 consequence of the prolonged struggle, all of the 

 survivors were so greatly weakened by the priva- 

 tion and hardship which they had undergone, that 

 they fell victims to disease and either died or 

 suffered from a greatly weakened vitality for the 

 remainder of their lives. It is evident that no 



