198 Egoism versus Sociability. 



able, it would always have been pleasurable in the 

 past. It could not but recall that just as at pres 

 ent the social impulses happen to be dominant, so 

 at other times hunger, vengeance, and lust hap 

 pen to be dominant ; and to slip the one force is 

 as natural and as praiseworthy, from this non- 

 moral point of view, as to slip the other. But 

 the social instincts, says Darwin, are more present 

 and enduring than the selfish instincts. . Even if 

 this contention, which I have already adduced 

 grounds for rejecting, be for the moment con 

 ceded, it will not help out the demonstration. 

 For you cannot argue that because selfish im 

 pulses do not come so often or stay so long as so 

 cial impulses, they have therefore less right to the 

 field when they actually do put in an appearance. 

 Granting that the times of sociability are greater 

 than the times of selfishness, this time-measure 

 does not explain why I feel remorse over acts of 

 vengeance or robbery. And if the meaning is 

 that I shed penitential tears over them solely be 

 cause I am at present transported by a wave of 

 sociability, this would lead to the absurdity that 

 when the egoistic instincts had the upper hand, 

 reflection would then produce remorse for pre 

 vious acts of benevolence and compassion involv* 

 ing sacrifice to myself ! 



