104 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Aug. 8, 1884. 



pleasurable feelings in the discharge of altruistic duties, 

 and a wider range for altruistic emotions, will inevitably 

 come such an evolution of conduct as must tend greatly to 

 increase the well-being of the community. The care of self 

 will lie felt as a duty to others ; due care of others will 

 becotue a source of gratification to self. Society will be 

 simply, on an enlarged scale and in a more varied form, 

 sucli a community as might be formed by a number of 

 kindly, vell-iiieauing persons, of good capacity and pleasing 

 manrers, brought together for purposes of travel, research, 

 or plt^asure. In such a community it would be felt that 

 each person's first duty was to take due care of self, first 

 as just to himself, and secondly (yet chiefly) as a duty 

 to the rest of the community. But it would also be felt 

 by e-ch member of such a community that lie must be care- 

 ful of the interests of others, ready to be of use to any other 

 members of the community who required assistance such as 

 he could give individually, or to combine with others where 

 the a><sistance of several might seem to be required. Picture 

 the relations of such a community, all of good-will, kindly, 

 and nnxious that the business of the community should go 

 on so as to give pleasure to all, and it will be at once seen 

 how little there is of actual selfishness in due care of self, 

 how such care may be, nay, must be, a duty owed to all the 

 rest ; while, on the other hand, it will become clear also 

 how each member of such a community is interested in the 

 existence among all of a kindly interest on the part of each 

 in the well-being of the rest. The social body, whether we 

 consider the family, or the gathering of families into com- 

 munifies, or the collection of communities into nations, or 

 the iiiuki'ude of nations which form the population of the 

 earth, may be regarded as an aggregate which should be 

 pervaded by such ideas as are found essential for the 

 comfort and happiness of gatherings casually brought to- 

 gether. The due subordination of self to others in certain 

 relations, and of others to self in relations not less impor- 

 tant, which is found in all such gatherings on a small scale 

 and of comparatively uniform character — as in the passen- 

 gers on an oceansteawship, the members of a company of 

 traveders, the fellows of a scientific expedition, or even a 

 pleasure party — is what is'necessary for the well-being of the 

 body social ; and out of this necessity, instinctively recog- 

 nised, and exercising its influence steadily in the process of 

 the evolution of races, nations, and the human family as a 

 whole, seem to have sprung all those duties between man 

 and man, between race and race, and between nation and 

 nation, which form the present code of social morals, and 

 will hereafter — developed and improved — form the moral 

 code of perfected man. " What now, in even the highest 

 natures," as the great teacher of our day says, " is occasional 

 and feeble may be expected with further evolution to 

 become habitual and strong ; and what now characterises 

 the exceptionally high may be expected eventually to 

 characterise all. For that which the best human nature 

 ■is capable of is within the reach of human nature at large." 

 " That these conclusions," Mr. Spencer goes on to say, 

 " will meet with any considerable acceptance is improbable. 

 Neither with current ideas nor with current sentiments are 

 they sufficiently congruous. Such a view will not be agree- 

 able to those who lament the spreading disbelief in eternal 

 damiiation ; nor to those who follow the apostle of brute 

 force in thinking that because the rule of the strong hand 

 was once sood it is good for all time ; nor to those whose 

 reverence for one who told them to put up the sword is 

 shown by using the sword to spread his doctrine among 

 heathens." From ten thousand teachers of a religion of 

 love who are silent when a nation is moved by the religion 

 of hate will come no sign of assent ; nor from those priestly 

 Jaw-givets who, " far from urging the extreme precept of 



the Master they pretend to follow, to turn the other cheek 

 when one is smitten, vote for acting on the principle, 

 Strike lest ye be struck. Nor will any approval he felt 

 by legislators who, after praying to be forgiven their tres- 

 passes as they forgive the trespasses of others, forthwith 

 decide to attack those who have not trespassed against 

 them. But though men who profess Christianity and prac- 

 tice Paganism can feel no sympathy with such a view, 

 there are some, classed as antagonists to the current creed, 

 who may not think it absurd to believe that a rationalised 

 version of its ethical principles will eventually be acted 

 upon." 



Finally, I would ask those who have followed me thus 

 far to note how all the duties we have considered, both 

 egoistic duties and altruistic ones, may be seen with advan- 

 tage from a different point of view and in a changed aspect, 

 though unchanged in reality. We are in the habit of 

 regarding the study of moral laws always from the personal 

 side, and nearly all teachers in such matters (one might 

 almost say all) view the subject in this waj', since, even 

 when laying down a code of morals, they present each law 

 as it appeals to the reason and should affect the conduct of 

 the individual But it should be remembered that a moral 

 law which commends to each man a particular line of con- 

 duct, is a law which, if accepted and followed by all, in- 

 fluences each man by the effect it produces on all the rest. 

 Thus, a rule of conduct seemingly egoistic, and really 

 egoistic as affecting the individual, becomes, in any society 

 which accepts and obeys it, purely altruistic in its effect ; 

 while, 2)er contra, a law seemingly altruistic in terms becomes 

 purely egoistic in influence. If, instead of indicating a due 

 regard for self and a proper subordination of self to others, our 

 study of the morality of happiness had indicated as best 

 for the community a series of duties directed solely to the 

 benefit of self, yet the adoption of such a moral code by all 

 men would be altogether unselfish, seeing that it would 

 mean the forsaking of all right or title to help or sympathy 

 from others ; and others are many, while self is but one. 

 If, on the other hand, we had found a system of perfect 

 altruism commending itself as best, the acceptance of such 

 a system would be no sacrificing of self to others, but would 

 mean the acceptance of the principle that every one else 

 was bound to assist in all his ways and wishes the accepter 

 of this seemingly altruistic code — to sympathise with him 

 in all his sorrows, and to care for him far more than for 

 themselves. We have not been led to recognise any such 

 abnegation of self on the one hand, or regard for self alone 

 on the other hand, as desirable ; but, in such degree as we 

 have seen a regard for self to be desirable, we have in reality 

 been led to the recognition of the rights of othere (since 

 each self is another to all others), while, in such degree as 

 we have seen that each should consider not only the rights 

 but the requirements of others, we have been led in reality 

 to the recosnition of the rights of each man to the assistance 

 and sympathy of his fellows. 



THE SEA HORIZON. 



By Richard A. Pkoctor. 



IT is amusing to note how ignorant many ordinary sea- 

 men and nearly all sea travellers are of such matters 

 as the distance of the sea horizon, the way in which a 

 ship's place at sea is determined, and other such matters — 

 which all seamen might be expected to understand, and 

 most persons of decent education might be expected to 

 have learned something about at school Ask a sailor how 



