Human Consciousness 393 



Therefore, as this intellectual and moral evolution builds 

 up co-operation into higher phases, it does so by bringing 

 into self-knowing and known relations, larger and more 

 complex units, whose component individuals still act under 

 earlier law in simple conduct, while governed by new law 

 in their organized being. 



The complexity is a result of progress, and in its varia- 

 bility is a means toward more progress. The appearance 

 of an inspiration for its highest practice and definition, 

 and the cultivation of that highest desire in ideals of altru- 

 ism, is one of those variations which arise purposeful and 

 conscious, in psychological humanity, to better perform the 

 same things which in lower life are fortuitous or casual and 

 unperceived. 



But although different in origin these variations of con- 

 duct under psychological impulse, are in nature tested by 

 the old standard, still unchanged, which is that of value 

 for the purpose of self-preservation. The survival of the 

 fittest is still the final result of the comparison of this 

 variant in conduct with others ; but it is a question of fitness 

 which includes defensive power as needed for present main- 

 tenance, and which proceeds against any unit organized for, 

 and acting in, destructive contest ; by opposing a unit organ- 

 ized in mutual cohesion, and acting preferably in extended 

 co-operation. The triumph of the co-operative principle is 

 as evident in human evolution by race contest, as it was in 

 the biological evolution of multicellular animals. Of 

 families, tribes and nations, or whatever units may be com- 

 pared, that is the strongest which has the least destructive 

 impulse, and the greatest co-operative impulse. Among units 



