382 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



attempted wrong, contemptible as it is, may excite some sense of 

 shame in the wrong-doers, though conceivably not (for such wrong- 

 doers are of a shameless sort) ; but the defeat of their purpose will at 

 the least involve disappointment and serve as a discouragement from 

 such attempts in the future. Of course, a very zealous opponent of 

 the obnoxious section of society might not be content with what I 

 here advocate as the simple line of duty in such cases. He might (as 

 an earnest opponent of evil did — rather harshly I think — the other 

 day) take on himself to punish as well as to resist evil ; and having 

 been met with the customary falsehood as to some article deposited in 

 a vacant seat, might pitch it out of the window, with the remark that he 

 would be responsible to the real owner when he appeared. But this is 

 going beyond the strict line of duty in such matters. 



It will appear manifest, I think, on careful consideration of the 

 matter by any one who notes, for a few days or even hours, the course 

 of events around him in his family and in society, that he who neg- 

 lects to defend his own rights against the encroachments of Class D 

 as well as of Class E, and of Class C as well as of Class D, fails as clear- 

 ly in his duty to the social body as the parent who overlooks selfish 

 and unruly conduct in his children. And just as the children them- 

 selves whose training is thus neglected have really just reason, did 

 they but know what is good for them, to complain of such mistaken 

 kindness, so even the more selfish (all but the members of Class E) 

 have no less reason than the unselfish, did they but know their own 

 interests, to desire that considerate but firm and self-regardful con- 

 duct should prevail throughout the body social. 



It has been shown that care of self necessarily precedes care of 

 others, because we must ourselves live if we are to benefit others. 

 It has been shown further that if there is to be progress and improve- 

 ment in the race, the superior must profit by their superiority, and so 

 develop in numbers and influence, while the inferior because inferior 

 become less and less predominant in the community. Further, it has 

 appeared that while a society improves as it becomes constituted more 

 and more largely of the better sort, this improvement depends in large 

 part on those qualities of the individual members of society which de- 

 pend on due care of self. In like manner it appears that in a society 

 whose members are not duly regardful of self, misery arises from the 

 excess of self-denial which ends by making those who practice it bur- 

 dens on the rest of the community. Lastly, we have seen that due 

 care of self is desirable, and neglect of the just rights of self injurious 

 to the social body, because that undue care of self which is properly 

 called selfishness, and leads either to negative or positive forms of 

 wrong-doing, thrives and multiplies in a community where the better 

 sort allow evil and oppression to pass unchecked by the due assertion 

 of self-rights. 



But now it is worth remarking that the line of reasoning which has 



