ETHICS AND ALTRUISM 275 



the care of others, therefore, he cares for others. He 

 and his are liable to become insane, or if the insane 

 generally are left to roam at large, his life is in 

 danger, therefore, he contributes to the establishment 

 of insane asylums. In short, whatever preserves the 

 integrity and strength of the community, contributes 

 to his own comfort and health. This is the principle 

 at the bottom of the evolution of unselfishness and 

 altruism. It is not a condition produced by the reason 

 of man, but the reason is the product or effect of the 

 conditions. Man is forced to reason thus, when he is 

 able to perceive that nature so operates, and his pres- 

 ervation and perpetuation require him to reason thus 

 After the principle is once fixed in the mind of man, and 

 he has thus reasoned for generations, man naturally in- 

 creases the forms or phases of it. He then invents many 

 subtle forms of altruism. The forms of public charity, 

 and numerous societies, organized for its application, 

 are constantly increasing, and these give plausibility to 

 the contention that man's reason, and his religion, are 

 changing the natural law of evolution, in the survival 

 of the fittest. But the principle itself was first estab- 

 lished by natural evolution. As society becomes more 

 complex, so does the growth of the principle become 

 more complex. Just as nature first established the 

 principle of the birth and growth of organisms, and 

 afterwards man invented the garden, and farm, where, 

 by artificial selection, he has produced variations of 

 both animals and vegetables, unknown in the wild 

 state, so he has produced variations of the principle of 

 natural morality in civilization, unknown to primitive 

 tribes of men. But in both instances his method, or 

 reasoning, has always been derived from his corre- 

 spondence with the laws of nature in doing the same 



