SOME POPULAR FALLACIES 



it is only until one lives with a baby that one can 

 realize, in anything like adequate measure, the 

 wonder of this biological truth. 



It was John Fiske, the admirable writer who did 

 so much to popularize the synthetic philosophy in 

 America, that first pointed out a fact which affords 

 striking confirmation of Spencer's theory of the 

 origin of morality. Fiske observed that the pro- 

 longation of the infantile period, so notable in 

 human kind, must have been a most important 

 factor in the development of our altruistic sense. 

 The tigress robbed of her whelps is obviously not 

 without altruism though a learned and distin- 

 guished Jesuit friend of mine insists that it is only 

 "unconscious altruism" but the young of the 

 lower animals do not long need parental care. The 

 tiger-cub and the fledgling of the bird are soon able 

 to shift for themselves. In no preceding case, as 

 Fiske observed, is the period of dependence so 

 prolonged as in that of the human infant. 



Indeed, the helplessness of infancy is not fully 

 to be appreciated until one lives with it ; nor is its 

 significance to be measured until one appreciates 

 its contrast with what is to be. Consider a week- 

 old baby. Unable to stand, much less to wander 

 in search of food ; very nearly deaf ; all but blind ; 

 wellnigh indiscriminating as to the nature of what 

 is presented to its mouth ; utterly unable to keep 

 itself clean, yet highly susceptible to the effects of 

 dirt ; able to indicate its needs only by alternately 

 turning its head, open-mouthed, from side to side 

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