222 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE LIFE OF OTHERS. 



tain the life of the species, is not less real than the 

 first ; the provisions for effecting it are not less won- 

 derful ; the whole is not less a part of the system of 

 things. And, taken prophetically, the function of 

 Reproduction is as much greater than the function of 

 Nutrition as the Man is greater than the Animal, as 

 the Soul is higher than the Body, as Co-operation is 

 stronger than Competition, as Love is stronger than 

 Hate. If it were ever to be charged against Nature 

 that she was wholly selfish, here is the refutation 

 at the very start. One of the two fundamental activ- 

 ities of all life, whether plant or animal, is Other-re- 

 garding. It is not said that the function of Repro- 

 duction, say in a fern or in an oak, is an unselfish act, 

 yet in a sense, even though begotten of self, it is an 

 other-regarding act. In the physical world, to speak 

 of the Struggle for Food as selfish, or to call the Strug- 

 gle for Species unselfish, are alike incongruous. But 

 if the morality of Nature is impugned on the ground 

 of the universal Struggle x for Life, it is at least as rel- 

 evant to refute the charge by putting moral content 

 into the universal Struggle for Species. No true 

 moral content can be put into either, yet the one 

 marks the beginning of Egoism, the other of Altruism. 

 Almost the whole self-seeking side of things has come 

 down the line of the individual Struggle for Life ; al- 

 most the whole unselfish side of things is rooted in the 

 Struggle to preserve the life of others. 



That an Other-regarding principle should sooner or 

 later appear on the world's stage was a necessity if 

 the world was ever to become a moral world. And as 

 everything in the moral world has what may be called 

 a physical basis to begin with, it is not surprising to 



