862 COSMIC FEILOSOPHT. [rr. a 



Nevertheless, the more perilous portions of the labyrinth 

 have been traversed, I hope with safety, and we now need 

 only one more clew to bring ns to the light. We shall best 

 realize the character of this additional element needed, if we 

 consider for a moment the most general aspects of the two 

 groups of feelings already described. While the feelings of 

 which we first treated under the head of pleasures and paiiis 

 are purely egoistic or self-regarding feelings, on the other hand 

 the feelings which we have lately described as underlying 

 and forming the groundwork of the moral sense in a state of 

 sociality have been happily characterized by Mr. Spencer as 

 " ego-altruistic " feelings. That is, they concern the happi- 

 ness of the individual iu so far as it depends upon the 

 feelings with which his fellow-creatures regard him. The 

 mixed feeling ordinarily known as generosity, for example, is 

 often to a very large extent ego-altruistic. "The state of 

 consciousness which accompanies performance of an act 

 beneficial to another is usually mixed ; and often the pleasure 

 given is represented less vividly than are the recipient's 

 feeling toward the giver and the approval of spectators. The 

 sentiment of generosity proper is, however, unmixed in those 

 cases where t.'ie benefaction is anonymous : provided, also, 

 that there is no contemplation of a reward to be reaped here- 

 after. These conditions being fulfilled, the benefaction clearly 

 implies a vivid representation of the pleasurable feelings 

 'usually themselves representative) which the recipient will 

 have." ^ 



This vivid representation of the pleasurable or painful feel- 

 ings experienced by others is sympathy ; and the additional 

 factor to be taken into the account, in order to complete the 

 explanation of the moral sense, is the enormous expansion of 

 tjympathy which has been due to the continued integration 

 of communities, and to the accompanying decrease of warlike 

 Di predatory activity. A word of passing comment only i» 

 * Spencer, Principles of Psychology, voL ii. p. 613. 



