ETHICS AND ALTRUISM 249 



a new path of health and happiness, to a natural ter- 

 mination, which it welcomes as a relief from further 

 wearisome pursuit of happiness. The difference between 

 the career of the two, above depicted, is the natural 

 morality, immanent in a well adapted organism. 



MAN'S RELATION TO His FELLOW MAN. The second 

 phase of a natural code of ethics, is man's relation to 

 his fellow man, as a part of his general environment. 

 In reality, the former relation, that to nature at large, 

 is one, rather of adaptation and defense. In that part, 

 the questions generalized into the golden rule, viz., 

 altruism, justice, mercy, love, etc., do not properly arise. 

 The treatment we receive from the laws of nature is only 

 justice, in a very abstract sense; the fact being, that all 

 are served alike in proportion to intelligence. But mercy, 

 love, and the beatitudes do not seem to enter into it, in 

 the personal sense of those terms, as they do in the rela- 

 tions between mankind. Impersonal cosmic power has 

 not the same warm grip upon the consciousness of man, 

 as has the personal power, exerted by men, toward each 

 other. It is only in the associations of men, and the rela- 

 tions growing out of these, that a code of natural ethics 

 evolves, which includes those conditions resulting from 

 attributes peculiar to animal life, such as fear, love, 

 anger, and the sexual emotions. This personal code, in- 

 cludes the altruistic, which is characteristic of all animal 

 life, having nervous structure. 



Of all animals, man is the least physically able to sup- 

 ply his own wants. Therefore some kind of co-operation 

 with his fellow man became a necessity to primitive man, 

 and this has continued to the present time. Only animals 

 with great power of supplying their wants can live in 

 solitude. This weakness in man is the very element, that 

 has worked, and is still working, not only for his higher 



