408 



LAWS OF MT71TIPL1CATI0S. 



posed, would have been available for reproduction ; or rather 

 — might have been replaced by nutriment fitted for repro- 

 ductive purposes, absorbed from other kinds of food. Hence, 

 in proportion as the activities increase — in proportion as, by 

 its more varied, complex, rapid, and vigorous actions, an 

 animal gains power to support itself and to cope with sur- 

 rounding dangers, it must lose power to propagate. 



§ 327. How may this antagonism be best expressed in a 

 brief way ? If self-preservation displayed itself in the 

 highest organisms, as it does in the lowest, in little else but 

 continuous growth ; and if race-preservation consisted always, 

 as it does often, of nothing beyond detachment of portions 

 from the parental mass ; then the antagonism would be, 

 throughout, the obviously-necessary one of integration and 

 disintegration. Maintenance of the individual and propaga- 

 tion of the species, being respectively aggregative and separa- 

 tive, it would be as self-evident that they vary inversely, as 

 it is self-evident that addition and subtraction undo one 

 another. But though the simplest types show us the opposi- 

 tion of self- maintenance and race-maintenance almost wholly 

 under this form ; and though higher types, up to the most 

 complex, exhibit it to a great extent under this form ; yet, as 

 we have just seen, this is not its only form. The total 

 material monopolized by the individual and withheld from 

 the race, must be stated as the quantity united to form its 

 fabric, plus the quantity expended in differentiating its 

 fabric, plus the quantity expended in its self- conserving 

 actions. Similarly, the total material devoted to the race at 

 the expense of the individual, includes that which is directly 

 subtracted from the parent in the shape of egg or foetus, plus 

 that which is directly subtracted in the shape of milk, plus 

 that which is indirectly subtracted in the shape of matter 

 consumed in the exertions of fostering the young. Hence 

 this inverse variation is not expressible in simple terms of 

 aggregation and separation. As we advance to more highly. 



