"Struggle-for-life" manifesto (Struggle for Existence and its
Bearing upon Man), which to my appreciation was a very incorrect
representation of the facts of Nature, as one sees them in the
bush and in the forest, I communicated with the editor of the
Nineteenth Century, asking him whether he would give the
hospitality of his review to an elaborate reply to the views of
one of the most prominent Darwinists; and Mr. James Knowles
received the proposal with fullest sympathy. I also spoke of it
to W. Bates. "Yes, certainly; that is true Darwinism," was his
reply. "It is horrible what 'they' have made of Darwin. Write
these articles, and when they are printed, I will write to you a
letter which you may publish. "Unfortunately, it took me nearly
seven years to write these articles, and when the last was
published, Bates was no longer living.

After having discussed the importance of mutual aid in
various classes of animals, I was evidently bound to discuss the
importance of the same factor in the evolution of Man. This was
the more necessary as there are a number of evolutionists who may
not refuse to admit the importance of mutual aid among animals,
but who, like Herbert Spencer, will refuse to admit it for Man.
For primitive Man--they maintain--war of each against all was
the law of life. In how far this assertion, which has been too
willingly repeated, without sufficient criticism, since the times
of Hobbes, is supported by what we know about the early phases of
human development, is discussed in the chapters given to the
Savages and the Barbarians.

The number and importance of mutual-aid institutions which
were developed by the creative genius of the savage and