It
repudiates the gladiatoral theory of existence."
It is a vast change from the "gladiatorial theory" to that of
"mutual helpfulness." Call it a revolution, if you will. Revolutions
are not unheard of in the history of the animal kingdom any more
than in human history. We have seen, first, digestion and
reproduction on the throne of animal organization, then muscle, and
finally brain. Each of these changes is in one sense a revolution.
A little before the summer solstice the earth is whizzing away from
the sun; a few weeks later it is whizzing with equal rapidity in
almost the opposite direction. In the very nature of things it could
not be otherwise. But so silently and gradually does it come about
that we never feel the reversal of the engine; indeed the engine has
not been reversed at all. Very similar is the change of the struggle
of brute against brute to that of man for man. Indeed human
development seems now to be almost at such a solstice where the
power that makes for love is almost exhausted in opposing the
tendency toward selfishness. We shall not always stay at the
solstice; soon we shall make more rapid progress. And unselfishness
like the family relation is firmly rooted in mammalian structure.
And man owes almost everything to family life. First the child gains
the advantage of the parent's experience.
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