CHAP. Ill The Struggle of Life 45 



for existence " is often applicable only in its " wide and 

 metaphorical sense." And it is fair to balance the happiness 

 and mutual helpfulness of animals against the pain and 

 deathful competition which undoubtedly exist. 



What we must protest against is that one-sided inter- 

 pretation according to which individualistic competition is 

 nature's sole method of progress. We are told that animals 

 have got on by their struggle for individual ends ; that they 

 have made progress on the corpses of their fellows, by a 

 " blood and iron " competition in which each looks out for 

 himself, and extinction besets the hindmost. To those who 

 accept this interpretation the means employed seem justified 

 by the results attained. But it is only in after-dinner talk 

 that we can slur over whatever there is of pain and cruelty, 

 overcrowding and starvation, hate and individualism, by 

 saying complacently that they are justified in us their 

 children; that we can rest satisfied that what has been 

 called "a scheme of salvation for the elect by the damnation 

 of the vast majority " is a true statement of the facts ; that 

 we can seriously accept a one-sided account of nature's 

 regime as a justification of our own ethical and economic 

 practice. 



The conclusions, which I shall afterwards seek to 

 substantiate, are, that the struggle for existence, with its 

 associated natural selection, often involves cruelty, but 

 certainly does not always do so ; that joy and happiness, 

 helpfulness and co-operation, love and sacrifice, are also 

 facts of nature, that they also are justified by natural 

 selection ; that the precise nature of the means employed 

 and ends attained must be carefully considered when 

 we seek from the records of animal evolution support 

 or justification for human conduct ; and that the tragic 

 chapters in the history of animals (and of men) must be 

 philosophically considered in such light as we can gather 

 from what we know of the whole book. 



