ETHICS AND ALTRUISM 241 



The same principle will apply to the standard of beauty. 



Darwin, in "Descent of Man" says in regard to 

 beauty: "The men of each race prefer what they are 

 accustomed to, they cannot endure any great change; 

 but they like variety; and they like each characteristic 

 carried to a moderate extreme." The African greatly 

 admires a black skin, flat nose, and colored teeth; the 

 European altogether a different type, and the American, 

 and Malay still others. 



As Kautsky says, ' ' Prison, poverty, and death are pre- 

 ferred by people to shame. Kautsky also quotes some 

 curious letters of a converted Esquimo. For instance, 

 "My country-men know nothing of either God or Devil 

 and yet they behave respectably, deal kindly, and 

 forcibly with each other, tell each other everything, and 

 create their means of subsistence in common." This is 

 a natural morality. 



Nansen says of the Esquimo life, "One of the most 

 beautiful and marked features in the character of the 

 Esquimo is certainly their honorableness. " Honorable- 

 ness means their morality. 



There are two phases, of man's correspondence with 

 environment, that should be considered in the treatment 

 of any natural ethics. The first is man's relation to the 

 forces of nature, as such. This relationship is purely 

 intellectual, and not moral, in the current definition of 

 the word moral. Yet in one aspect, it has a most de- 

 cided moral bearing. 



Unless man conceives the truth, regarding the material 

 facts of the universe, and its laws, he cannot properly 

 adjust his organism to his environment. He cannot for- 

 mulate a correct philosophy. This is illustrated, by the 

 delusions under which all mankind were struggling, in 

 regard to astronomy, prior to the discoveries of Coperni- 



