248 THE ETHICAL KINSHIP 



older and more universal than love. Enmity con- 

 stituted the very loins from which long ago came 

 the original miscreants of this world. 



* I saw the fishes playing there ; 

 I saw all that was in the whole world round ; 

 In wood, and bower, and marsh, and mead, and field, 

 All things which creep and fly, 

 And put a foot to earth. 

 All these I saw, and say to you, 

 That nothing lives among them without hate.* 



Life has been developed through selection. This 

 selection has been brought about largely through 

 v/ar — war between individuals and between groups 

 of individuals. War and competition are struggle 

 between living beings, and the soul of competition 

 is selfishness. Egoism is the primal and most 

 powerful of terrestrial impulses, because beings 

 hated and exterminated each other before they 

 tolerated and loved, and because struggle has 

 far overshadowed cooperation as a factor in life 

 evolution. 



There are those who believe that mutual aid 

 has been a more dynamic factor in the develop- 

 ment of terrestrial life than competition. Co- 

 operation has been an important element in the 

 evolution of animal life, and it has operated 

 among nearly all animals, from the humblest to 

 the highest. Far down near the beginning of 

 organic existence we find the one-celled forms 

 huddhng together in colonies, giving rise in the 

 course of time to the many-celled animals. But 

 to conclude that cooperation is the chief factor in 



