EVOLUTION AND THE HIGHER HUMAN LIFE 285 



a right to expect service or deference to personal inter- 

 est from others if he fails to work for them and for the 

 good of all. It is true that the social structure will stand 

 a great amount of tension, but if this becomes too great, 

 either a readjustment is effected, as when King John was 

 forced by the barons to concede their rights, or else the 

 whole nation suffers, owing to the selfishness of a few. 

 In the war between Russia and Japan, the latter won 

 because the individual soldier merged his individuality 

 in the larger mechanism of the regiment and brigade 

 and army corps, gladly sacrificing his life for the nation 

 represented by the person of its Emperor. The single 

 Russian soldier may have been far superior to a Japanese 

 in muscular strength, and perhaps in arms also, but 

 selfishness and greed on the part of many who were re- 

 sponsible for the organization and equipment of the 

 Russian armies rendered the whole fighting machine 

 less coherent and therefore less efficient than that of 

 the Japanese. 



In the evolution of ethics the recognition of ideals of 

 conduct has followed long after the institution of a par- 

 ticular precept by nature, which is obeyed instinctively 

 and mechanically by force of inheritance. In the case 

 of the communities of insects, the results are the same 

 as though the individual animal fully recognized the 

 value of concerted endeavor. So among primitive 

 savages of to-day there is only a vague conception of 

 abstract duty as such, or it may be practically lacking, 

 as in the case of the Fuegians. So also a growing child 

 is substantially egoistic, and it must be taught by pre- 

 cept and example that the rights of others can be safe- 

 guarded only by the altruistic correction of personal 



