HUMAN LIFE 



This mutual aid, as a biologic or natural 

 factor, has influenced materially, as I 

 have said, the mode of life, the biologic 

 success and the character of the evolution 

 of many kinds of lower animals. In their 

 case it was not we presume consciously 

 chosen or consciously developed. In the 

 case of man, however, where also mutual 

 aid has been a fundamental factor in 

 determining the mode of life and the 

 success and character of the evolution of 

 the species, and where in the beginning 

 also it may have been entirely uncon- 

 sciously taken on, we face an important 

 new thing in relation to it; that is its con- 

 scious development. Indeed, it is the high 

 development of mutual aid plus a high 

 degree of brain power plus the existence of 

 something we call spirit or soul in man, 

 all of these interacting on each other to 

 the advantage of the further development 

 of each, that really distinguishes man from 

 other animals and makes him human. 

 This conscious development of mutual 

 aid, or altruism, by man demands some 

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