REALM OF UNCONSCIOUSNESS 



ting themselves free from the dangerous neigh- 

 borhood and at the same time not to put too fine 

 a point upon it getting a nourishing meal. 



But the worst of the matter is that there are 

 actually said to be, in the Solomon Islands, human 

 beings of so low a type that they also practice the 

 same terrible habit in similar circumstances. The 

 reason for this is, of course, that these cannibals, 

 dwelling isolated for ages under the stress of a 

 natural struggle for existence, have not yet suc- 

 ceeded in raising their unwritten code of ethics 

 above the animal level in this and other particu- 

 lars. They have not acquired our civilized sense of 

 the beauty of maternal love and the sanctity of 

 human life because nature has been against them; 

 and it is not possible that they can enjoy happi- 

 ness in motherhood when they feel no unhappi- 

 ness after thus destroying their infants. 



Where, owing to his environment, man is still 

 compelled to live in some respects the life of an 

 animal, there he blindly follows in those respects 

 all his animal instincts for the good of the race, 

 and enjoys neither happiness nor unhappiness in 

 so doing. What he does by instinct he does as a 

 matter of course, seeing in it neither wrong nor 

 right. 



It is horrid, of course, from the civilized human 

 point of view, but a great deal of animal nature 

 [51] 



