140 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [March, 



Here, too, is the root of the more kindly features of the morality 

 taught by natural history, that fully counterbalance what may 

 often be thought the dominant and essential, but harsher, char- 

 acteristics of the instinctively selfish, sometimes fierce, struggle for 

 existence under natural selection, wholly incapable, it may seem, of 

 any connection with the gentle moral rules of conduct for men's 

 intercourse with men, which are now generally supposed to require 

 mild self-abnegation. To some degree among many of the lower 

 animals, but still much more in the human race, the weak and 

 defenceless young need for a time the protection and aid of the 

 parents. Any portion of the race that should have been deficient 

 in the instinct that provides such help would obviously have died 

 out; so that the instinct has become universal. This instinct, not 

 only unites in friendliness the parent and child, but tends to soften 

 the character of both, even with regard to outsiders, and makes 

 possible and probable more or less friendly intercourse between 

 brethren, and, by a sort of natural infection, between less closely 

 related men; and it is this feeling that has been at the bottom of 

 all systems of morality. 



The aim, in general, is not to favor one individual only, but to 

 give all an equal chance, to establish justice, in order to enable the 

 ablest, the fittest, to survive and perpetuate the race in the highest 

 vigor and best condition; while the weaklings and those possessed 

 of characters prejudicial to the healthful permanence of the race 

 shall tend to die out and disappear. Clearly, the success of the race 

 depends on the success of the fittest individuals in this struggle for 

 existence and justice. "A mush of concession," in which the indi- 

 vidual always yields everything, with a total eradication of seeking 

 for selfish advantage, would be as harmful to the prosperity and 

 eventual survival of the race, as would be an over-grasping selfishness 

 that would deny what is fair to every competitor. The race can 

 only progress through the benefit to individuals. Selfishness, then, 

 the desire for private gain, is not altogether wrong, but should be 

 enlightened, should avoid running to excess, by conceding, not only 

 justice, but (to insure against the possible exaggeration of one's own 

 ideas of what might be rightfully claimed) should yield something- 

 more than what, to the claimant, seems mere justice; that is, should 

 aim at nothing more than justice seasoned with kindness. This, 

 then, is the practical rule that natural history indicates for the 

 guidance of intercourse between men; and enforces it unswervingly, 

 impartially, and inexorably by the most effectual penalties for any 

 transgression, even to the shortening of life, or to the wretchedness 

 of a later generation, or the extermination of a family or tribe, with 

 as much certainty as the punishment for the violation of hygienic 

 laws. 



The incentive to high morality is particularly obvious to anyone 

 who realizes that his child is but an outgrowth from himself, that 

 it is, in fact, a part of himself. For he would perceive how important 

 it is that in this new life he should inherit the best possible charac- 



