73 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ferred upon some individual may subsist. And if this sentiment under 

 favorable circumstances produces further action, this time intentional, 

 it will become stronger thereby ; far more power is felt to be exerted, 

 and more interest is consequently felt in the effect. The wish to main- 

 tain the effect increases in proportion to the exertions already made, 

 and it may finally become strong enough to overcome counteracting 

 influences of considerable moment. 



But this is not all. As it is a condition of the persistence of the 

 beneficial effect, that the being upon whom it has been produced con- 

 tinues to exist, a secondary wish, very slight at first, will be generated, 

 that the whole individual may continue to be. At the same time that 

 the wish for the persistence of the beneficial effect becomes stronger, 

 this secondary feeling augments and may produce action tending to the 

 conservation and the welfare of the individual benefited. But, as soon 

 as the fact is realized that good has been done to the whole individual, 

 this new secondary benefit will become the starting-point of a growing 

 disinterested benevolence, directed no longer toward a single quality 

 but toward the whole being. The secondary feeling may now grow 

 much quicker than the primary one, which may in due time be entirely 

 forgotten, and nothing will remain but true disinterested benevolence 

 toward the individual. A benefit conferred by mere chance has pro- 

 duced true devotion. 



To illustrate my meaning, which otherwise might remain obscure, 

 let me adduce an example : A man had to throw away some water, 

 and, stepping out of his house, threw it upon a heap of rubbish, where 

 some faded plants were nearly dying. At that moment he paid no 

 attention to them, took no interest in their pitiable state. The next 

 day, having again some water to throw away, the man stepped out at 

 the same place, when he remarked that the plants had raised their stems 

 and regained some life. He understood that this was the result of his 

 act of the day before, his interest was awakened, and, as he held a jar 

 with water in his hand, he again threw its contents over the plants. 

 On the following day the same took place ; the benevolent feeling, the 

 interest in the recovery and welfare of the plants augmented, and the 

 man tended the plants with increasing care. When he found one day 

 that the rubbish and plants had been carted away, he felt a real annoy- 

 ance. The feeling of the man in this case was real disinterested benev- 

 olence. The plant's were neither fine nor useful, and the place where 

 they stood was ugly and out of the way, so the man had no advantage 

 from their growth. Nor had the man a general wish to rear plants, for 

 there were a number of other plants sorely in want of care, but to 

 which the man did not transfer his affection. He had loved those indi- 

 vidual plants ; the benevolence toward the effect he had at first pro- 

 duced had by confusion become benevolence toward the plant itself, 

 and the first feeling had been entirely forgotten. 



In this case there was a complete confusion between the effect and 



