The Law of Struggle

ose only striving is to keep alive, are not compatible with the standards of struggle necessarily evolved by the highly gregarious state of human society. It is by contact with others that lofty standards of struggle are evolved. It is largely on this account that highly sensitive, aggressive natures seek out the press of men, the populous centers, for a foil to their struggle. All experiments to prove that man can live and flourish in a state of isolation have proven that it is impossible to do so. Such a state would only be productive of stunted growths or the sickliness of spirit that passes for mysticism. A well-known American writer who lived in the solitude of a forest for two years, imagined he had proven that civilized man can live and thrive non-gregariously. He ruined his argument, however, by returning to civilized life and, still worse, by writing books about his experiences. We are apt to forget that the gregarious habit probably developed as a necessity of struggle and is of incalculable value to the human race. Occasional solitude, even years of solitude, may prove very stimulating, just as contact with the life of the large metropolis is stimulating. But this is beside the question. A great many of our most important struggle-values can have no existence save against the background of the gregarious state. Such, for example, are justice, generosity, honesty, charity, etc. These could hardly have been developed save through struggle in t...