io8 MYSTICISM AND LOGIC 



give legislative force to our own wishes. This may, of 

 course, be questioned, but I think that it is confirmed by 

 a consideration of the way in which ethical notions arise. 

 Ethics is essentially a product of the gregarious instinct, 

 that is to say, of the instinct to co-operate with those 

 who are to form our own group against those who belong 

 to other groups. Those who belong to our own group 

 are good ; those who belong to hostile groups are wicked. 

 The ends which are pursued by our own group are desir 

 able ends, the ends pursued by hostile groups are nefari 

 ous. The subjectivity of this situation is not apparent 

 to the gregarious animal, which feels that the general 

 principles of justice are on the side of its own herd. 

 When the animal has arrived at the dignity of the meta 

 physician, it invents ethics as the embodiment of its 

 belief in the justice of its own herd. So the Grand 

 Augur invokes ethics as the justification of Augurs in 

 their conflicts with pigs. But, it may be said, this view 

 of ethics takes no account of such truly ethical notions as 

 that of self-sacrifice. This, however, would be a mistake. 

 The success of gregarious animals in the struggle for 

 existence depends upon co-operation within the herd, and 

 co-operation requires sacrifice, to some extent, of what 

 would otherwise be the interest of the individual. Hence 

 arises a conflict of desires and instincts, since both self- 

 preservation and the preservation of the herd are biological 

 ends to the individual. Ethics is in origin the art of 

 recommending to others the sacrifices required for co-oper 

 ation with oneself. Hence, by reflexion, it comes, through 

 the operation of social justice, to recommend sacrifices 

 by oneself, but all ethics, however refined, remains more 

 or less subjective. Even vegetarians do not hesitate, 

 for example, to save the life of a man in a fever, although 

 in doing so they destroy the lives of many millions of 



