THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 89 



well said : " The purely self-seeking animal has/ 

 been found to be a fiction, like that of the 

 economic man " (Norman Wilde). 



Our position is that, instead of making an anti- 

 thesis between " struggle for others " and " struggle 

 for self," it is clearer to recognise that both may be 

 included in the rubric of reaction of self-assertive 

 living creatures against the difficulties and limita- 

 tions of environing conditions. In many cases a 

 kin-instinct is as well defined as a self-preservative 

 instinct, and, in face of difficulties and Hmita- 

 tions, a solution may be found along either line 

 or along both. The world is indeed the abode 

 of the strong, but it is also the home of many 

 feeble folk who make up in love what they lack; 

 in strength. 



Mutual Aid. — ^Kiopotkin has done real service 

 to science by showing, in detail, how much there 

 is of mutual aid among animals. There are some 

 genuine societies, where the whole is more than the 

 sum of its parts and sometimes acts as a unity. 

 Ants are httle people, and all the world is against 

 them ; in facing their limitations — which is what 

 " struggle " means — ^they have found a solution 

 in sociability, and they are dreaded by much 

 stronger insects. Every one knows that some 

 species of ants go to war. But our outlook on 

 nature should take its colour not only from the 

 warfare, but also from the self-subordination which 

 the whole life of the ant-hill illustrates. In many 

 species it seems to be a law of the hill that an ant 

 with a full crop must never refuse to feed a hungry 

 comrade. 



There is something very suggestive in an ob- 

 servation of Hudson's in regard to social and 



