BENEVOLENCE AND DISCIPLINE 133 



it is a token of cooperative sympathy, and the assurance 

 that a larger unity of purpose exists between the giver 

 and the receiver than in either one. 



Every gift carries with it its own compulsion and 

 directive influence to these larger purposes. Benev- 

 olence, therefore, has a disciplinary value, as well as an 

 additive one. 



Thus all benevolence has a dual aspect: self-creat- 

 ing and self-giving; the receiving of endowments for 

 self-construction, and the giving of self to new con- 

 structions. This is egoism and altruism. Egoism, 

 which in its nakedness we call self-aggrandizement, 

 self-preservation, and self-service, is the primary obli- **iv\- 

 gation of every individual ; the initial source of nature's 

 constructive capital. It is a prerequisite to altruism, 

 for the larger and more righteous the self-constructing 

 service of the individual, the more the individual will 

 have to give; the greater will be his directive influence 

 on other things. 



Thus the profit in evolution is some gain in the 

 Tightness of self-construction. That power cannot be 

 preserved except it be rightly added to, or conferred 

 upon some other constructive agent which rightly uses 

 it. The profits will be cumulative, or nature's capital 

 in organized agencies increased, provided the cost of 

 conveyance does not exceed, or wholly consume, the 

 constructive gains. 



This rhythmic exchange of power between indivi-j 

 duals; this metabolism of self-constructive egoism am 

 self-giving altruism, is nature-life. If it increases ii 

 intensity and stability, if the social life of nature ac- 

 tually grows in possessions ; or if, as we say, evolution 

 takes place, it must mean that on the whole individual 



