IN HIGHER PEOPLES 169 



qualities as cruelty, hate, intolerance, rudeness, 

 unkindness, injustice, narrowness, and the like. 

 Selfishness is often called Egoism, from the Latin 

 word Ego, which means /. 



The opposite of selfishness (or Egoism) is Al- 

 truism, which means regard for others. Altruism 

 shows itself in such qualities as kindness, sym- 

 pathy, charity, forgiveness, love, pity, public 

 spirit, fraternity, courtesy, generosity, patience, 

 justice, and the like. 



In the ideal human being there is the same 

 amount of regard for others as there is for one- 

 self, and the same amount of regard for self as 

 for others. There is a balance of Egoism and Al- 

 truism. The Ideal Man obeys the Golden Kule. 

 He treats others with the same regard as he 

 would if they were a part of himself. 



The over-amount of selfishness in human nature 

 is the one great misfortune of mankind, for it 

 leads to nearly all the wrongs that men inflict upon 

 each other. But it is not simply a human misfor- 

 tune. The same condition exists in the natures of 

 nearly all animals. Everywhere on earth, from the 

 dwellers in the deeps to the feathered spirits of 

 the sky, we find individuals seeking their own sat- 

 isfactions and their own ends in disregard of the 

 ends and satisfactions that others are seeking. 

 Hence, the universal war, and hence the war-like 

 natures found everywhere in the world. The 

 planet is steeped in selfishness and inhumanity. 



But we higher beings of the earth have found 



