XVII 

 THE VALUE OF LIFE 



Changes of life — Aim of life — Progress of life — Historic aims — 

 Historic waves — Value of life in classes and races of men — 

 Psychology of uncivilized races — Savages — Barbarians — 

 Civilized nations — Educated nations — Three stages of 

 development (lower, middle, and higher) in each of the four 

 classes — Individual and social value of civilized life in the 

 five sections of nutrition, reproduction, movement, sensa- 

 tion, and mental life — Estimate of human life. 



THE value of human life is seen by us to-day, now 

 that evolution is established, in quite a different 

 light from fifty years ago. We are now accustomed to 

 regard man as a natural being, the most highly developed 

 natural being that we know. The same "eternal iron 

 laws" that rule the evolution of the whole cosmos con- 

 trol our own life. Monism teaches that the universe 

 really deserves its name, and is an all-embracing unified 

 whole — whether we call it God or Nature. Monistic 

 anthropology has now established the fact that man is 

 but a tiny part of this vast whole, a placental mammal, 

 developed from a branch of the order of primates in the 

 later Tertiary Period. Hence, before we seek to estimate 

 the value of man's life, we will cast a glance at the sig- 

 nificance of organic life generally. 



An impartial survey of the history of organic life on 

 our planet teaches, first of all, that it is a process of con- 

 stant change. Millions of animals and plants die every 

 second, while other millions replace them ; every individ- 



386 



