of life,
struggle is the order of the day; but more and more as the higher
rungs are reached, it takes on characters which are proportionately
more "humane."

Reflections of this kind permit the introduction into the economic
order of limitations to the doctrine of "laisser faire, laisser
passer." This appeals, it is said, to the example of nature where
creatures, left to themselves, struggle without truce and without
mercy; but the fact is forgotten that upon industrial battlefields the
conditions are different. The competitors here are not left simply to
their natural energies: they are variously handicapped. A rich store
of artificial resources exists in which some participate and others do
not. The sides then are unequal; and as a consequence the result of
the struggle is falsified. "In the animal world," said De
Laveleye,[256] criticising Spencer, "the fate of each creature is
determined by its individual qualities; whereas in civilised societies
a man may obtain the highest position and the most beautiful wife
because he is rich and well-born, although he may be ugly, idle or
improvident; and then it is he who will perpetuate the species. The
wealthy man, ill constituted, incapable, sickly, enjoys his riches and
establishes his stock under the protection of the laws." Haycraft in
England and Jentsch in Germany have strongly emphasised these
"anomalies," which nevertheless are the rule. That is to say that even
from a Darwinian point of view all social reforms can readily be
justified which aim at diminishing, as Wallace said, inequalities at
the start.

But we can go further still. Whence comes the idea that all measures
inspired by the sentiment of solidarity are contrary to Nature's
trend? Observe her carefully, and she will not give lessons only in
individualism. Side by side with the struggle for existence do we not
find in operation what Lanessan calls "association for existence."
Long ago, Espinas had drawn attention to "societies of animals,"
temporary or permanent, and to the kind of morality that arose in
them. Since then, naturalists have often insisted upon the importance
of various forms of symbiosis. Kropotkin in _Mutual Aid_ has chosen
to enumerate many examples of altruism furnished by animals to
mankind. Geddes and Thomson went so far as to maintain that "Each of
the greater steps of progress is in fact associated with an increased
measure of subordination of individual competition to reproduct