THE ETHICS OF HUMAN BEINGS 277 



one great crime in the universe, and most of the 

 instances of terrestrial wrong-doing are instances 

 of this crime. It is the crime of exploitation the 

 considering by some beings of themselves as 

 ends, and of others as their means the refusal to 

 recognise the equal, or the approximately equal, 

 rights of all to life and its legitimate rewards the 

 crime of acting toward others as one would that 

 others would not act toward him. For millions 

 of years, almost ever since life began, this crime 

 has been committed, in every nook and quarter of 

 the inhabited globe. 



Every being is an end. In other words, every 

 being is to be taken into account in determining 

 the ends of conduct. This is the only consistent 

 outcome of the ethical process which is in course 

 of evolution on the earth. This world was not 

 made and presented to any particular clique for 

 its exclusive use or enjoyment. The earth belongs, 

 if it belongs to anybody, to the beings who inhabit 

 it to all of them. And when one being or set of 

 beings sets itself up as the sole end for which the 

 universe exists, and looks upon and acts toward 

 others as mere means to this end, it is usurpation, 

 nothing else and never can be anything else, it 

 matters not by whom or upon whom the usurpa- 

 tion is practised. A tyrant who puts his own 

 welfare and aggrandisement in the place of the 

 welfare of a people, and compels the whole people 

 to act as a means to his own personal ends, is not 

 more certainly a usurper than is a species or 

 variety which puts its welfare in the place of the 



