88 DARWINISM AND HUMAN LIFE 



and driven inward by incessant blows " — the idea 

 being that any wedge that was relieved from 

 blows would at once rise above the rest. But 

 the comparison to wedges is inadequate ; we 

 have to think of living wedges with a will of 

 their own — a will to rise, and then we have got 

 nearer the idea of the struggle for existence. 

 The same idea is suggested by Darwin's extra- 

 ordinary sentence : " It may metaphorically be 

 said that natural selection is daily and hourly 

 scrutinising throughout the world the slightest 

 variations." 



The Other Side of the Struggle for Exist- 

 ence. — If we are right in our wide interpretation 

 of the concept " struggle for existence," which 

 we maintain to be Darwin's, though many biolo- 

 gists, such as Sir E. Ray Lankester, say it is not, 

 then we can pass in a more logical way than here- 

 tofore to||what has sometimes been called the other 

 side of the struggle for existence : to a recognition of 

 the love of mates, parental sacrifice, fiUal affection, 

 the kindliness of kindred, gregariousness, sociality, 

 co-operation, mutual aid, and altruism generally. 

 These are facts of life, though we may difier as to 

 the precise psychological terms to be used in 

 describing them. The business of life, all through, 

 includes care for others as well as care for self. As 

 Herbert Spencer says : " If we define altruism as 

 being aU action which, in the normal course of 

 things, benefits others instead of benefiting self, 

 then, from the dawn of life, altruism has been no 

 less essential than egoism. Though primarily it 

 is dependent on egoism, yet secondarily egoism 

 is dependent on it." " Self-sacrifice is no less 

 primordial than self-preservation." As has been 



