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By Root 573 0

for the longer it continues, the farther it carries the world from this condition. Harmony is unity in diversity, concord between differing entities. Whether in a work of art or a society, the more varied the entities that compose it, the richer and more precious their harmonious integration becomes. For the higher modes of harmony, individuality appears to be indispensable; and the physiological foundation of individuality is the insulation of organisms. Spiritual community is superimposed on this biological separation; it owes its sweetness and poignancy to its persistent striving to overcome the very aloofness that is its foundation. Moreover, as far as we can tell, only individuals can experience happiness and high values, toward which the whole creative process appears to be directed.

Cooperation and Competition

Furthermore, we must be careful lest by overemphasizing the strife of the living world we lose sight of its complementary aspect. Those who see in nature only battle and carnage are as shortsighted as

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those who find there only beauty and peace. Each of these interpretations results from a need to discover in nature support for one's own dominant mood; so that to the violent and bloodthirsty, nature is red in tooth and claw, while to the loving heart she is the tender universal mother. This capacity to give to each that which he or she seeks is proof of nature's vast diversity.

The outstanding feature of the relations between organisms, whether of the same or of diverse kinds, is neither their friendliness nor their hostility so much as their baffling complexity. On one hand, organisms must cooperate closely to create and stabilize the environment on which the prosperity of each of them depends. On the other hand, they are forced to compete for materials, space, and energy, which are rarely abundant enough to fill the needs of all the individuals produced by life's prodigious powers of multiplication. Cooperation and competition, harmony and strife are equally prominent in life's paradoxical involvement. Those who blindly stress one of these contrasting aspects while forgetting the other have not understood life. Cooperation and competition are so intimately linked that it is hardly possible to separate them. Cooperators readily become competitors, and competitors may become cooperators before they are aware of it, both in natural communities and the commercial human world. Stranger still, it often happens that the same creatures are simultaneously cooperators and competitors; as, by their very competition, the rule-abiding players of two opposing teams provide the cooperation that makes a good game.

The more complex organisms, animal and even vegetable, can hardly survive in a lifeless milieu. The cooperation of many of them is needed to create a favorable environment. Yet these same organisms compete with, and often destroy, one another. A mature forest, for example, in large measure creates its own environment. Closely spaced trees are necessary to prepare and preserve the peculiar qualities of soil, humidity, and light requisite for the germination and prosperous growth of these same trees. Nevertheless, they compete keenly for space, mineral nutrients, and sunlight. Many lose in this struggle and die. Swarming insects devour the foliage of the trees, yet some of these trees need some of the insects

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to pollinate their flowers. The saprophytic fungi that break down dead wood and foliage, returning mineral nutrients to the soil and enriching the mold necessary for the continued growth of the vegetation, readily mutate into parasitic strains that attack living plants. The birds roaming through the forest in mixed flocks help one another to detect and escape enemies and to find food but compete for the food thus encountered. If food becomes scarce, as in temperate-zone forests in winter, competition grows keen and some individuals may starve because their more competent companions capture the larger share. So delicate and so paradoxical is the balance between