Conscience, and the Moral Sense. 723 



and a constant increase in the number of people interested in and de- 

 pendent upon them ; so that the course which their development takes 

 is precisely that which in the first place was taken in the consolidation 

 of people into communities for the mutual protection of themselves and 

 their possessions against those outside of the organization. There is a 

 constant tendency to the formation of rings within rings. Thus, in a 

 large railroad company, whose stockholders are scattered all over the 

 country, there will be formed a ring composed of a few of the influen- 

 tial stockholders, for the purpose of owning cars to be run upon the 

 company's road, another ring will own all the grain elevators along the 

 line, another will secure the coal mines, and another will form an ex- 

 press company. The stockholders owning these interests will operate 

 them at the expense of the other stockholders of the general company 

 outside of their rings, using the common road to their individual advan- 

 tage. As the general stockholders become aware of this state of things, 

 they begin to demand a share in these side enterprises, until finally they 

 become the property of the whole company. And so it goes through- 

 out, the tendency being the consolidation. of many interests into a few, 

 of the few into one. 



These enterprises all begin in the selfishness of individuals, which 

 prompts them to get something more for themselves than can be ob- 

 tained by outsiders. The struggle for life makes all men natural en- 

 emies, and any combination or association which they make is in the na- 

 ture of a truce, and an offensive alliance against the common foe, the 

 rest of mankind. The confidence and good faith between the members 

 of such combinations, which are absolutely essential to their existence 

 and success, form the basis of the moral law. And the principle is 

 the same, whether we regard a band of thugs organized to murder out- 

 siders, but bound in honor to stand by each other ; a gang of thieves in 

 honor bound not to steal from each other ; or a company of merchants 

 in honor bound to account to each other fairly for the " profits" of their 

 business. Let the limits of each of these organizations be extended to 

 cover a nation, and we should have a nation free from murder, stealing 

 and dishonest} 7 . We perceive, therefore, that morality depends upon 

 common interests. Common interests bring about social relationships, 

 the harmonious reciprocit}'' of which constitute morality, and morality 

 ends with the advent of anti-social conditions. 



Although we imagine we are civilized, our social relations must be re- 

 garded as being in a state of unstable equilibrium, extremely liable to 

 be disturbed. Each nation has a complicated and extensive system of 

 laws and courts for the purpose of restoring equilibrium and affording a 

 field for the exercise of the anti-social instincts without too great a dis- 

 turbance of society. And when the equilibrium between two nations is 



