152 The Morality of Nature 



ciency, of a first method of the prime impulse, which is right. 

 This is the general theory which was indicated by a survey 

 of practical conduct, and it again appears in response to the 

 philosophical question. 



The physiological facts too are in accord. The earliest 

 individual life in the form of a living cell, which in favor- 

 able and unchanging conditions grows and subdivides and 

 becomes two similar cells, does not thereby evoke any antago- 

 nism or competition between them. They are, when newly 

 formed, of the same matter, in the same quality and quantity, 

 as when they were one. The growth reached is a conse- 

 quence of favorable circumstances which existed before, and 

 which still continue. The mutual interest which one-half has 

 with the other, the moment before division, is unaltered so 

 long as circumstances are unaltered. Whatever benefits one, 

 will also benefit the other, and the two thrive at least as 

 equally as if they had remained united. And the early de- 

 velopments of life in these lower orders show that when 

 differences do result from environment, so that union gives 

 advantage, there arises a process of reuniting of these 

 separated individuals, which is direct and positive evi- 

 dence of the continuing mutual interest. This is the process 

 of conjugation by which two single-celled creatures combine, 

 not in an act of destructive absorption, by one of the other, 

 but in the preservation of the qualities and characters of 

 both. 



The earliest conduct may well be of such co-operative 

 character as to promote the interests of a race producing it. 

 An attitude in which the circulation and absorption of the 

 nutriment-bearing water is secured without obstruction to 



