THE PROBLEM OF POPULATION. 671 



distinguish the selfishness of exaggerated patriotism from personal or 

 family selfishness. 



That patriotic selfishness is mischievous in its effects would scarcely 

 need showing if men were not so ready as they are to be deaf to the 

 teachings of experience. The well-being of other nations is in the 

 same sense essential to the well-being of our own nation as the well- 

 being of other members of the body social is essential to our own 

 personal well-being. The misfortunes of any nation with which our 

 own has relations are misfortunes to our own nation, however they 

 may be brought about, whether by internal misgovernment, by the 

 attacks of other nations, or by our own warlike measures. There can 

 be no doubt, for example, that the loss incurred by Germany, the vic- 

 tor, was only less than the loss incurred by France, the conquered, in 

 the disastrous Franco-German War. Other nations suffered greatly, 

 but Germany more, and France most of all. In the war with Russia, 

 in 1854-'55, all Europe suffered. In the American civil war not only 

 all the United States but the whole world incurred loss. It is easy for 

 nations to blind themselves, nay, most nations are naturally blind, to 

 the losses suffered by each through the misfortunes of others. But 

 there can be no doubt about the actual facts. The British race 

 would have been taught the lesson long since, if the lesson could 

 reach the average national mind through experience — for we are 

 suffering, have long been suffering, and long must suffer, from the 

 energetic efforts of our " imperial " race to get the better of other 

 races. Directly and indirectly, in loss of blood and material, in 

 the paralysis of trade as well as in increased expenditure, our peo- 

 ple has to pay for its imperial instincts, just as the man of over- 

 bearing, hard, and selfish nature has to j^ay in many ways for the 

 gratification of his instincts imperious. There are the same reasons, 

 based on material profit, for inculcating just and considerate dealings 

 between peoples as there are for encouraging just and considerate deal- 

 ings between man and man. But at present nations delight in pro- 

 claiming themselves selfish and overbearing ; the more brutal instincts 

 which remain dominant in nations after they have begun to die out in 

 individuals are upheld as virtues, much as in old times many races 

 regarded the more brutal qualities of humanity as chief among the 

 virtues. — Knowledge. 



-♦♦♦- 



THE PROBLEM OF POPULATION. 



Bt CHAELES MORRIS. 



IN passing through the open galleries of that busy ant-hill called a 

 city, with its endless ebb and flow of human beings, intent on their 

 various pursuits of business or pleasure, and succeeding each other in 

 a seemingly endless procession of busy life, there is apt to rise forcibly 



