Even
this unitary organism, then, acts mechanically so as to fulfil two primal
obligations, first _to itself_, through activities with individual benefit
as the result, and _to the race_ by the act of reproduction which closes
its individual existence and inaugurates a new generation.
The life of this example, representing the whole series of one-celled
organisms, is almost infinitely simpler than that of a member of a human
community, yet it reveals the beginnings of certain characteristics of the
latter. Here, it is true, the natural obligations in question are not like
those which are ordinarily denoted social, but it is equally true that
even in this most elementary instance a living thing does not live unto
itself alone. It is easy to see the value to the species as a whole of
obedience to the second great law--"_Preserve thy kind_." But a little
further thought makes it plain that even the performance of acts in
compliance with the first mandate--"_preserve thyself_"--are not purely
selfish, although their immediate value is realized as individual benefit.
Surely an organism that failed to live an efficient individual life would
be ineffective in reproduction, so that from one point of view everything
an animal does is tributary to the culminating act performed for the
larger good of the life of the whole species.
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