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What, however, applies to individual man also applies to nations. A nation is only a multitude of more or less
similar individual beings. Its strength lies in the value of the individual beings forming it as such, and in the
character and the extent of the sameness of these values. The same laws which determine the life of the
individual, and to which he is subject, are therefore also valid for the Folk. Self preservation and continuance
are the great urges underlying all action, as long as such a body can still claim to be healthy. Therefore, even the
consequences of these general laws of life will be similar among Folks, as they are among individuals
If, for every creature on this Earth, the instinct of self preservation, in its twin goals of self maintenance and
continuance, exhibits the most elementary power, nevertheless the possibility of satisfaction is limited, so the
logical consequence of this is a struggle in all its forms for the possibility of maintaining this life, that is, the
satisfaction of the instinct for self preservation.
Countless are the species of all the Earth's organisms, unlimited at any moment in individuals is their instinct
for self preservation as well as the longing for continuance, yet the space in which the whole life process takes
place is limited. The struggle for existence and continuance in life waged by billions upon billions of organisms
takes place on the surface of an exactly measured sphere. The compulsion to engage in the struggle for
existence lies in the limitation of the living space; but in the life struggle for this living space lies also the basis
for evolution
