392 The Morality of Nature 



that the rival human being is an equal and fellow; then it 

 becomes possible to cease the destructiveness of rivalry and 

 substitute co-operative agreement, and this alone terminates 

 a large part of the hostile environment. Nor does it over- 

 look the fact that hostility of environment continues in 

 nature, nor the other fact that a stimulus to improvement 

 arises in adversity. It does not disavow self-preservation, 

 but discovers a new and higher way of self-preservation; 

 the way of alliance in construction, instead of contest by 

 destruction; and if it relinquishes the cultivation in evolution 

 of destructive power, it does so only to take up the evolu- 

 tion of a co-operative power which is more effective. 



That this latter power is more effective is proven by its 

 triumph and survival in trial. In the present partial and 

 imperfect adoption of the co-operative motive by intellectual 

 humanity, there has arisen a power which, in comparison 

 with that of the more brutally impelled races, is overwhelm- 

 ing and convincing. And even for the aggressive efforts 

 at self-preservation in rivalry, the races most effective are 

 those which have, among themselves, best evolved the prin- 

 ciple of co-operation; and the successfully destructive ones 

 are those which have modified their policy by a considerable 

 development of its opposite. Further, this compounding of 

 motive is evident in all grades of organization; none is pure, 

 but each has character only by a preponderance of this quality 

 or that, in a mixture of all. 



So it is clear that the graduation into intellectual life is 

 imperfect, like other evolutionary changes, and it is after all 

 not an escape from more primitive law, but a recognition of 

 jiew and higher expressions of the same law, 



