ON JUSTICE. 27 



this, a certain sanction is acquired for -such conduct. The preser- 

 vation of the species being the ultimate end, it results that where 

 an occasional mortality of individuals in defense of the species 

 furthers this preservation in a greater degree than would pursuit 

 of exclusive benefit by each individual, that which we recognize 

 as sub-human justice may rightly have this second limitation. 



It remains only to point out the order of priority, and the re- 

 spective ranges, of these principles. The law of relation between 

 conduct and consequence, which, throughout the animal kingdom 

 at large, brings prosperity to those individuals which are struct- 

 urally best adapted to their conditions of existence, and which, 

 under its ethical aspect, is expressed in the principle that each 

 individual ought to receive the good and the evil which arises 

 from its own nature, is the primary law holding of all creatures ; 

 and is applicable without qualification to creatures which lead 

 solitary lives, save in that self-subordination needed among the 

 higher of them for the rearing of offspring. 



Among gregarious creatures, and in an increasing degree as 

 they co-operate more, there comes into play a law, second in order 

 of time and authority, that those actions through which, in ful- 

 fillment of its nature, the individual achieves benefits and avoids 

 evils, shall be restrained by the need for non-interference with the 

 like actions of associated individuals. A substantial respect for 

 this law in the average of cases being the condition under which 

 alone gregariousness can continue, it becomes an imperative law 

 for creatures to which gregariousness is a benefit. But, obviously, 

 this secondary law is simply a specification of that form which 

 the primary law takes under the conditions of gregarious life ; 

 since, by asserting that in each individual the interactions of 

 conduct and consequence must be restricted in the specified way, 

 it tacitly reasserts that these interactions must be maintained in 

 all other individuals. 



Later in origin, and narrower in range, is the third law, that 

 under conditions such that, by the occasional sacrifices of some 

 members of a species, the species as a whole prospers, there arises 

 a sanction for such sacrifices, and a consequent qualification of 

 the law that each individual shall receive the benefits and evils of 

 its own nature. 



Finally, it should be observed that whereas the first law is 

 absolute for animals in general, and whereas the second law is 

 absolute for gregarious animals, the third law is relative to the 

 existence of enemies of such kinds that, in contending with them, 

 the species gains more than it loses by the sacrifice of a few mem- 

 bers ; and in the absence of such enemies this qualification im- 

 posed by the third law disappears. 



