CHAPTER XVI 



ASPIRATION IN EVOLUTION IS MORALITY 



The specialized somatic function of dependent cells and 

 the new capacities of life in organization, evidently mark 

 the appearance of a great principle upon which rests the 

 whole system of co-operative life. This first stage shows it, 

 in relations of necessary interdependence, replacing the old 

 independence and achieving immense new powers thereby. 

 And co-operation, when of life organized in conscious activ- 

 ity, and evolved into high order to combine individuals as 

 the low order combines cells, is morality; and this is a force, 

 or rather a virtue in the application of force, which applies 

 to higher and still higher units. We see, as one of the results 

 of sex, not only in humanity but in all life, the evolution of 

 the power to co-operate in the altruistic virtues of duty, af- 

 fection and devotion. These are the forerunners of that 

 organization of individuals into the higher units of family, 

 clan and nation, which begin in comparatively low animal 

 types, and reach only partial completeness even in humanity. 

 Evidently the unit of activity is still growing under human 

 civilization. Where now a clan of a few hundred act in uni- 

 son, there is to be, in the fulfilment of this evolution, a nation 

 of many millions; and where many nations now strive, 

 there is to be unity in alliance, founded in extension of the 

 basic co-operative principle. It is this principle, and its 



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