

MORAL EVOLUTION 283 



and tended. A spirit of altruism characterises society more and 

 more as civilisation advances. It shows itself very conspicuously 

 even in legislation, and in England if the worthless and the idle 

 die of starvation, it is not the fault of our laws. Thus the 

 mutual helpfulness on which depended the strength of the 

 tribe or nation in war has broken through the limits set by 

 expediency. There is no thought in pure philanthropy of what 

 is good for the nation. The relief of distress comes to be 

 commonly regarded as good and right in itself whatever the 

 ultimate consequences may be. It is equally true that a nation 

 that has very little of the altruistic spirit cannot be strong. If 

 the upper classes selfishly allow the poor to live in squalor, 

 degradation and practical slavery, then the whole nation will, 

 no doubt, in time suffer for the sins of its wealthy citizens ; all 

 this is undeniable, but we are considering at present the ill, not 

 the good, done by altruism. There is no doubt that it tends 

 to keep alive vicious tendencies. The drunkard is not left out 

 in the cold to die where he has fallen, and when at length he 

 succumbs, his children are not left to starve. 



Medical science works in the same direction. Among bar- 

 barians, it is true, the medicine man may have helped to despatch 

 invalids. And even in our grandfathers' or fathers' time doctors 

 with their copious draughts may sometimes have assisted Natural 

 Selection. But what a sick man mainly requires is to lie in bed 

 and to have food brought to him, instead of having to go out 

 beneath the fury of the sun, in the pinching cold or the drench- 

 ing rain to get food for himself. Now this has been possible 

 for the sick for many ages past even among half civilised peoples. 

 And the fact that rest and shelter are obtainable during sickness 

 make a man's position utterly different from that of one of the 

 lower animals. Even before the days of medical science properly 

 so called, he could afford to reduce himself to an invalid state 

 for a time. 



Altruism and science work together. A man is not allowed 

 to perish from the effects of his own folly, for science, at the 

 command of altruism, steps in and saves him. When illness is 

 caused by self-indulgence, science is ready to mitigate the con- 



