CONFORMITY TO ENVIRONMENT 181 



vival of the fittest as to the fitting of as many as 

 possible to survive. It repudiates the gladiatoral 

 theory of existence." 



It is a vast change from the " gladiatorial theory " 

 to that of " mutual helpfulness." Call it a revolution, 

 if you will. Revolutions are not unheard of in the 

 history of the animal kingdom any more than in hu- 

 man history. "We have seen, first, digestion and repro- 

 duction on the throne of animal organization, then mus- 

 cle, and finally brain. Each of these changes is in one 

 sense a revolution. 



A little before the summer solstice the earth is 

 whizzing away from the sun ; a few weeks later it is 

 whizzing with equal rapidity in almost the opposite 

 direction. In the very nature of things it could not be 

 otherwise. But so silently and gradually does it come 

 about that we never feel the reversal of the engine ; in- 

 deed the engine has not been reversed at all. Very sim- 

 ilar is the change of the struggle of brute against brute 

 to that of man for man. Indeed human development 

 seems now to be almost at such a solstice where the 

 power that makes for love is almost exhausted in op- 

 posing the tendency toward selfishness. We shall not 

 always stay at the solstice ; soon we shall make more 

 rapid progress. And imselfishness like the family re- 

 lation is firmly rooted in mammalian structure. 



And man owes almost everything to family life. 

 First the child gains the advantage of the parent's ex- 

 perience. He is educated by the parent. In a few 

 formative and receptive years he gains from the par- 

 ent the results of centuries of human experience. The 

 process is thus cumulative, the investment bears com- 

 pound interest. And yet this is peculiar to man only 



