284 DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION 



the part of every unit is obligatory, but it must always 

 be antecedent to endeavor in the wider interests of the 

 race if the unit is a solitary individual ; if it is a member 

 of an association of any grade, then it must serve its 

 fellows in some way. Egoism and altruism are natural 

 essential guides to conduct ; neither can safely exclude 

 the other, and their antithesis sets a problem for every 

 organism, which is to work out the proper compromise 

 that will be most satisfactory to nature. The Golden 

 Rule is taught by biology because it is demonstrated 

 empirically, and not because it has any a priori value as 

 an ideal ethical principle. 



But utilitarian or natural ethics need not stop with 

 the statement of vague generalities like the foregoing. 

 In human society, as in the life of low animals, the worth 

 and value of any form of conduct and of every single act 

 can be estimated by definite biological criteria. The 

 institution of marriage and the conventions of common 

 morality have their biological value in their provision 

 for the care of children ; the safeguards of property 

 rights enable the industrious — the biologically effi- 

 cient — to keep the fruits of their labors ; the establish- 

 ment of formal civil and criminal laws is biologically 

 valuable in a social way, in so far as such laws diminish 

 the unsettling effects of personal animosity and the 

 desire to wreak personal vengeance ; the establishment 

 and differentiation of legislative, executive, and judicial 

 organs of government lead to greater social solidarity 

 and higher biological efficiency. Thus unchecked in- 

 dividualism is just as wrong ethically and biologically 

 among men as it would be in the case of insect communi- 

 ties, as pointed out in the preceding chapter ; no one has 



