322 Mutual Aid as a Law of Nature 



welfare of the individuals who compose it. On the 

 other side, we may trace the influence of Hegel's 

 philosophy, combined with the distorted "social 

 Darwinism" in the so-called scientific socialism of 

 Karl Marx. The old Marxian school of socialism 

 has made the struggle of the classes the very pivot 

 of the evolution of the human race. Moreover, 

 the philosophy of force having proclaimed that 

 the struggle is most severe when it takes place 

 between the most nearly related individuals, the 

 deduction has been drawn that the antagonism 

 between men must be the most profound which 

 exists in the world. 



The single fact which has been left out of account 

 in all the theories of natural antagonism is the 

 phenomenon, found throughout the universe, of 

 association. It may even be demonstrated that 

 if there were a natural antagonism which is irre- 

 ducible between men in society, there would not 

 exist on the planet either a plant or an animal. 

 For the assumption that antagonism is natural 

 between men is equivalent to saying that associa- 

 tion did not produce a multiplication of vital 

 power or an enlargement of life. If this were the 

 case no biological association would have been able 

 to form, since the object of biological association, 

 as of human association, is the increase of vital 

 power, the expansion of life. Consequently neither 

 plants nor animals would exist. If the antagonism 

 between men were inherent in the nature of things, 

 if homo homini lupus were true, this would signify 



