The instinct of self-preservation in animals—Man’s instinctive love of life—Indifference to life during childhood—Buddhist legend on instinctive self-preservation and the fear of death—Fear of death treated in literature—Confessions of Tolstoi regarding the fear of death—Other opinions on the subject—The fear of death an instinctive phenomenon—Development in man of a love of life—Treatment of the aged—Murder of old people—Suicide of old men—Absence of harmony between the love of life and the conditions of human existence—The part played by the fear of death in religions and systems of philosophy It is not to be wondered at that man’s social instinct exhibits so many imperfections and disharmonies, seeing that it is still in an unsettled condition, and is a recent acquisition. On the other hand, we should expect to find that love of life and the instinct of self-preservation had reached a high degree of harmony, since these have been in process of development throughout the whole animal series that culminated in man. Even in the lowest forms of life many contrivances exist for purposes of protection. Creatures, the bodies of which are merely microscopic drops of protoplasm, the living material, may be protected by shells from external influences which threaten their destruction. Plants protect themselves, sometimes by means of thorns which prevent them from being eaten, sometimes by secretions either merely irritant in character or actually poisonous. Among animals the means employed for self-preservation are even more numerous. Shields and shells, the secretion of fluids exhaling unpleasant odours, or facilitating escape by clouding the water, as in the case of the ink of the cuttlefish, offensive weapons, strong teeth, and many other characters, serve no other purpose than to protect the individual life. The exposition of this subject would involve writing a complete treatise on the comparative anatomy of plants and animals. Among lower animals the preservation of life is accomplished without mental connivance, conscious or unconscious. Soon, however, protective instincts begin to appear. Simple cases of these are flight at the approach of danger, protection by a covering of slimy froth secreted by the creatures themselves, or built up from this excreta, or from foreign matter. Such facts show that the love of life and the instinct of self-preservation are almost universal in the living world.