124 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



pearance of mute expectation. At evei-y 

 other laorning, as well as at evening, they 

 had to be sought and brought to the bars for 

 milking. Some;i}nes I would forget to take 

 the salt with me at the stated time, when, 

 instead of moving off to feed after my task 

 was done, as they usually did, they I'emained 

 about the spot an hour or so, as if waiting 

 for their weekly rations of salt. 



He-re, then, is the problem: Every Sunday 

 morning these cows came of their own option 

 to the place of milking, and where on that 

 day they generally got salt, and not on other 

 mornings. How could they do that, except 

 through some faculty of estimating the seven 



days of the week ? If " the dog distinguished 

 Sunday by some features that were peculiar 

 to it," we can not say the same of the cows 

 in question. They were isolated from the 

 outer world, away from any thoroughfare, 

 and saw no one but myself from one week 

 to another and from one month to another. 

 So far as we can judge, one day was like 

 all days excepting Sunday, which they might 

 have called salt-day, had they possessed the 

 faculty of speech. How did they note that 

 cycle of time, to be there on that morning 

 and not on any other morning '? 



A. S. Hudson, M. D. 

 Stockton, Cal., September 1, ISSS. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



THE MORALITY OF THE FUTURE. 



ONE of the most interesting papers 

 read at the recent meeting of the 

 American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science was one upon "Altruism 

 considered economicany," hy the Vice- 

 President of the Section of Economic 

 Sciences, Mr. Charles "W. Smiley. The 

 drift of Mr. Srailey's address, which may 

 be read in our present number, was to 

 the effect that the impulse to do good 

 to others at the cost of sacrifice to 

 one's self was one that required careful 

 watching and discipline, as otherwise it 

 would be very likely to prove more harm- 

 ful than beneficial. The more we study 

 the operation of the fundamental laws 

 of nature, the more clearly we see how 

 essential they are to all healthy living; 

 and how little upon the whole is gained, 

 and bow much is lost, in the effort to 

 transcend them in the name of higher 

 principles. Thus, self-preservation is the 

 first law of all animated life ; but some 

 have thought it worthy only of the 

 brute creation, and have preached in its 

 stead the law of self-sacrifice. Doubt- 

 less, as Mr. Smiley admits, there have 

 been times in the history of the world 

 when there was pressing need for the 

 preaching of self-sacrifice as a correct- 

 ive to the selfish and unscrupulous pur- 

 suit of personal ends ; but the time has 

 now come in our modern civilized com- 

 munities when it should be seen that the 



highest service any man can render to 

 the community is not to devote all his 

 goods to feed the poor, or perform any 

 other signal act of self-denial, but to 

 practice justice and labor to strengthen 

 the characters of those around him. 

 Self-sacrifice as a principle is wanting 

 in logic, seeing that it implies the gain 

 of one through the loss of another. We 

 have had in the past, and still have, nu- 

 merous institutions that have sprung 

 from the idea of self-sacrifice ; and, with 

 a large portion of the community, it is a 

 fixed idea that only acts involving self- 

 sacrifice can have any merit. But ex- 

 perience is showing more and more that 

 those who are supposed to stand in need 

 of all this voluntary benevolence derive 

 but little real advantage from it ; that, 

 on the contrary, it further weakens their 

 already defective characters, and tends 

 to make their condition one of chronic 

 and constitutional dependence on the 

 assistance of others. 



How is it, we may ask, that, in spite of 

 all that is done for the poor in the way 

 of charity, the demand for charity is an- 

 nually greater and more pressing? The 

 object of giving help ought to be to raise 

 the recipient above the need of help ; 

 but this result is manifestly not being 

 accomplished. For one charitable fund 

 that existed a generation ago there ex- 

 ist at least five to-day ; and almost every 

 week something new is started, look- 



