may be simply described as the struggle of the human species for existence.[22] And it is this battle of the Titans that our nurses and governesses try to compose with their lullaby-song of Heaven! FOOTNOTES: [19] The contradiction between the tireless tendency of Eros to spread ever further and the general conservative nature of the instincts here becomes very noticeable; it would serve as the starting-point of enquiries into further problems. [20] In Goethe’s Mephistopheles we have a quite exceptionally striking identification of the principle of evil with the instinct of destruction: ‘All entities that be Deserve their end—nonentity.’ * * * * * ‘So all that you name sin, destruction— Wickedness, briefly—proves to be The native element for me.’ As his adversary, the devil himself cites not what is holy and good, but the power in nature working towards the creation and renewal of life—that is, Eros. ‘From air, from water, germs in thousands, As from the soil, break forth, break free, Dry, wet, warm, cold—a pullulation! Had I not laid on flame a reservation, Nothing were set apart for me.’ [21] Our present point of view can be roughly expressed in the statement that libido participates in every instinctual manifestation, but that not everything in that manifestation is libido. [22] And we may probably add more precisely that its form was necessarily determined after some definite event which still remains to be discovered. VII Why do the animals, kin to ourselves, not manifest any such cultural struggle? Oh, we don’t know. Very probably certain of them, bees, ants, termites, had to strive for thousands of centuries before they found the way to those state institutions, that division of functions, those restrictions upon individuals, which we admire them for to-day. It is characteristic of our present state that we know by our own feelings that we should not think ourselves happy in any of these communities of the animal world, or in any of the rôles they delegate to individuals. With other animal species it may be that a temporary deadlock has been reached between the influences of their environment and the instincts contending within them, so that a cessation of development has taken place. In primitive man a fresh access of libido may have kindled a new spurt of energy on the part of the instinct of destruction. There are a great many questions in all this to which as yet we have no answer.