284 THE ETHICAL KINSHIP 



conceptions, formed by the race in its childhood, 

 continue, under the influence of the same laws of 

 inertia, on into the more mature stages of racial 

 development. Human nature changes with great 

 reluctance, and only in its superficial aspects at 

 that. There are cave-men, men with the primitive 

 ideas and practices of the Stone Age, and men in 

 the pastoral and hunting stages of mankind, in 

 all the highest societies of men. There is scarcely 

 a habit, vice, occupation, amusement, crime, or 

 trait of character, found among men of the 

 past but may be seen still among our contem- 

 poraries. 



Altruism (other-love) is just as natural as 

 egoism (self-love) is. There is not so much of it 

 in the world as there is of egoism. But that is 

 simply the misfortune of our place of existence. 

 There is no reason why there might not have been 

 as much, or even more, under different conditions. 

 With the same antecedents, nothing can, of course, 

 happen differently from what does happen. But 

 with different antecedents, different causes, the 

 results are bound to be different. Civilised men 

 are not beings of altruism, because they are not 

 the effects of that kind of causes. But there is no 

 reason why there might not be a world several of 

 them, in fact, or even a universeful where the 

 inhabitants have never known or heard of such an 

 indelicate thing as of beings preferring themselves 

 to others where it is as natural for them to act 

 toward each other according to what we call the 

 Golden Rule as it is for us terrestrial heathens to 



