4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



which one race prospers will not answer for another, the recognition 

 of this truth is by no means adequate. Men who have lost faith in 

 "paper constitutions," nevertheless advocate a policy toward inferior 

 races, implying the belief that civilized social forms can with advan- 

 tage be imposed on uncivilized peoples ; that the arrangements which 

 seem to us vicious are vicious for them ; and that they would benefit 

 by institutions domestic, industrial, or political akin to those which 

 we find beneficial. But acceptance of the truth that the type of a soci- 

 ety is determined by the natures of its units, forces on us the corollary 

 that a regime intrinsically of the lowest may yet be the best possible 

 under primitive conditions. 



Otherwise stating the matter, we must not substitute our developed 

 code of conduct, which predominantly concerns private relations, for 

 the undeveloped code of conduct which predominantly concerns pub- 

 lic relations. Now that life is generally occupied in peaceful inter- 

 course with fellow-citizens, ethical ideas refer chiefly to actions be- 

 tween man and man ; but, in early stages, while the occupation of life 

 was mainly in conflicts with adjacent societies, such ethical ideas as 

 existed referred almost wholly to intersocial actions : men's deeds 

 were judged by their direct bearings on tribal welfare. And since 

 preservation of the society takes precedence of individual preserva- 

 tion, as being a condition to it, we must, in considering social phe- 

 nomena, interpret good and bad rather in their earlier senses than in 

 their later senses ; and so must regard as relatively good that which 

 furthers survival of the society, great as may be the suffering inflicted 

 on individuals. 



Another of our ordinary conceptions has to be much widened be- 

 fore we can rightly interpret political evolution. The words "civil- 

 ized" and "savage" must have given to them meanings differing 

 greatly from those which are current. That broad contrast usually 

 drawn wholly to the advantage of the men who form advanced na- 

 tions, and to the disadvantage of the men who form single groups, a 

 better knowledge obliges us profoundly to qualify. Characters are to 

 be found among rude peoples which compare well with those of the 

 best among cultivated peoples. With little knowledge, and but rudi- 

 mentary arts, there in some cases go virtues which might shame 

 those among ourselves whose education and polish are of the highest. 



Surviving remnants of some primitive races in India have natures 

 in which truthfulness seems to be organic. Not only to the surround- 

 ing Hindoos, higher intellectually and relatively advanced in culture, 

 are they in this respect far superior, but they are superior to Europe- 

 ans. Of certain of these Hill peoples it is remarked in India that their 

 assertions may always be accepted with perfect confidence ; which is 

 more than can be said of diplomatists who intentionally delude, or 

 ministers who make false statements concerning cabinet transactions. 



