Social Evolution 329 



precisely the communities which have made least 

 progress among- the Bushmen, Australian black 

 fellows, and root-digger Indians, for instance. 



Moreover, Mr. Kidd does not define what he 

 means by "rational sanction." Indeed one of his 

 great troubles throughout is his failure to make 

 proper definitions, and the extreme looseness with 

 which he often uses the definitions he does make. 

 Apparently by "rational" he means merely selfish, 

 and proceeds upon the assumption that "reason" 

 must always dictate to every man to do that which 

 will give him the greatest amount of individual 

 gratification at the moment, no matter what the cost 

 may be to others or to the community at large. This 

 is not so. Side by side with the selfish develop- 

 ment in life there has been almost from the begin- 

 ning a certain amount of unselfish development too ; 

 and in the evolution of humanity the unselfish side 

 has, on the whole, tended steadily to increase at the 

 expense of the selfish, notably in the progressive 

 communities about whose future development Mr. 

 Kidd is so ill at ease. A more supreme instance of 

 unselfishness than is afforded by motherhood can 

 not be imagined ; and when Mr. Kidd implies, as he 

 does very clearly, that there is no rational sanction 

 for the unselfishness of motherhood, for the unself- 

 ishness of duty, or loyalty, he merely misuses the 

 word rational. When a creature has reached a cer- 

 tain stage of development it will cause the female 

 more pain to see her offspring starve than to work 

 for it, and she then has a very rational reason for 



