ETHICS AND ALTRUISM 245 



flow of phenomena, in the condensation of matter into 

 organic forms, the development of them by growth, and 

 their return to the inorganic. So that birth and death 

 are merely natural phases of universal evolution. 



Death therefore, when it occurs naturally, is not a 

 calamity, nor a thing, in the abstract, to be regretted. 

 The attitude of mankind toward this necessary step in 

 evolution is not according to the best reason. 



Of course, this definition of death makes it an es- 

 sential link in the method of evolution. But its occur- 

 rence too early in life, if caused by preventable violation 

 of physical laws, is a sign of a certain phase of immoral- 

 ity, and can be avoided by a wise system of education, 

 in physiology and hygiene. Death from old age can per- 

 haps be thus postponed to a later average date, than it 

 now occurs. 



In Egypt, death in whatever form was considered by 

 the priests an assassination. From their standpoint, it 

 was the act of man, an animal, or a spirit, or of a God. 

 It was not a natural phenomenon. This idea, in a 

 modified form, is still held by civilized people. It was 

 the province of biological science to discover that it is 

 a natural process, that can be regulated, as to time, to 

 a very great extent, by man himself, when his intelligence 

 is brought into accord with what his attitude should be 

 to, and correspondence with, the laws of nature and be- 

 ing. This refers to the method of education in the 

 natural sciences. Man's mental powers are so limited, 

 that this method has not always given true knowledge. 

 But an immense advance has been made in astronomy 

 by the discoveries of Copernicus, but not until the 16th 

 century; in geology, not until Lyell, in the 19th cen- 

 tury ; in biology, not until Darwin in 1859. There is no 

 other method known that has given so much knowledge 



