ETHICS AND ALTRUISM 265 



In the war of 1871 between Germany and France, 

 and that is only an example of others, thousands of lives 

 were taken apparently for the acquisition of Alsace and 

 Loraine, and of a thousand million francs as indemnity. 



THE PRINCIPLE WORKS REGARDLESS OF HUMAN OP- 

 POSITION. It is evident to the student of anthropology, 

 that nature is now enforcing and always has enforced, 

 this natural morality of human adaptation, without the 

 least regard for any artificial code ; and the punish- 

 ment for violations is being enforced daily before our 

 eyes. But we refuse to see, that our short comings are 

 lapses in immorality, that term being applied exclusively 

 to acts, which meet the approbation, or reprobation of 

 another; and seldom, if ever, to lapses of natural laws, 

 or human laws founded on the laws of Nature. Un- 

 belief, for which Nature has no punishment, is to the 

 Council of Trent, an unpardonable sin. 



Sir Francis Drake, commanding England's fleet in 

 1586, wrote the Lord High Treasurer, on his return from 

 an expedition to the West Indies, where he captured, 

 and put to ransom, the Spanish towns of San Domingo 

 and Cartagena, that on his expedition, the Spanish treas- 

 ure of the Indies escaped him only twelve hours, saying 

 "the cause, best known to God." He meant he would 

 have waylaid the Spanish vessels carrying the treasure 

 and taken it, as he had done other piratical things, and 

 "God work it all to his glorye. " It is not possible that 

 God had any hand in such crimes. 



But could men be aroused to see that sudden, or pre- 

 mature death, or exclusion from society, for social viola- 

 tions, are really avoidable by living up to a natural code 

 of ethics, it would soon be perceived that the proper 

 education, is that, which teaches how the most health 

 and happiness can be gotten out of life, by a study of 



