250 THE ETHICAL KINSHIP 



even in its highest manifestations, is but the 

 expression of a veiled and calculating egoism. 

 Inhumanity is everywhere. The whole planet is 

 steeped in it. Every creature faces an inhospi- 

 table universeful, and every life is a campaign. It 

 has all come about as a result of the mindless and 

 inhuman manner in which life has been developed 

 on the earth. It has been said that an individual 

 of unlimited faculties and infinite goodness and 

 power made this world and endowed it with ways 

 of acting, and that this individual, as the world's 

 executive, continues to determine its phenomena 

 by inspiring the order of its events. But one 

 cannot help thinking sometimes, when, in his 

 more daring and vivid moments, he comes to 

 comprehend the real character and condition of 

 the world, what a discrepancy exists between the 

 reputation of this builder and his works, and 

 cannot help wondering whether an ordinary 

 human being with only common-sense and insight 

 and an average concern for the welfare of the 

 world would not make a great improvement in 

 terrestrial affairs if he only had the opportunity 

 for a while. 



Altruism is the recognition of, and regard for, 

 others. It shows itself in feelings of justice, good- 

 will, tenderness, charity, pity, public spirit, sym- 

 pathy, fraternity and love, and in acts of kindness, 

 humanity, mercy, generosity, politeness, philan- 

 thropy and the like. Altruism is a graft. The 

 stock is selfishness and brutality. Altruism (the 

 form of altruism to which I here refer : there are 



