THE MORALITY OF HAPPINESS. 317 



the carnivore of the latter sort, than to remove the more prudent 

 member of the race. In the long run this would tell even among the 

 lower animals. But, as we approach the relations of men to men and 

 men to animals, we see more obviously how conduct in which the in- 

 terests or the wants of others are considered is safer in the long run, 

 more conducive (in hundreds of ways more or less complex) to pro- 

 longed existence, than conduct in which those interests and wants are 

 neglected. Hence there will be a tendency, acting slowly but surely, 

 to the evolution of conduct of the former kind. More of those whose 

 conduct is of that character, or approaches that character, will sur- 

 vive in each generation, than of those whose conduct is of an opposite 

 character. The difference may be slight, and therefore the effect in 

 a single generation, or even in several, may also be slight ; but in the 

 long run the law must tell. Conduct of the sort least advantageous 

 will tend to die out, because those showing it will have relatively infe- 

 rior life-chances. 



Mr. Spencer seems to me to leave his argument a little incomplete 

 just here. For, though he shows that conduct avoiding harm to 

 others, in all races, must tend to make the totality of life larger, this 

 in reality is insufficient. He is dealing with the evolution of conduct. 

 Now, to take a concrete example, those of the hawk tribe who left 

 little birds alone, except when they had no other way to keep them- 

 selves alive but by capturing and killing them, would help to increase 

 the totality of life, by leaving more birds to propagate their kind than 

 would be left if a more wholesale slaughter were carried out. But 

 this of itself would not tend to develop that moderation of hawk 

 character which we have imagined. The creatures helped in the life- 

 struggle would not be the hawks (so far as this particular increase in 

 the totality of life was concerned), but the small birds ; and the only 

 kind of moderation or considerateness encouraged would be shown in 

 a lessening of that extreme diffidence, that desire to withdraw them- 

 selves wholly from hawk society, which we recognize among small 

 birds. But if it be shown that the more wildly rapacious hawks stand 

 a greater chance of being destroyed than those of a more moderate 

 character, then we see that such moderation and steadiness of charac- 

 ter are likely to be developed and finally established as a character- 

 istic of the more enduring races of hawks. And similarly in other 

 such cases. 



It is, however, in the development of conduct in the higher races 

 only, that this comparatively elaborate law of evolution is clearly rec- 

 ognized. Among savage races we still see apparent exceptions to 

 the operation of the rule. Individuals and classes and races distin- 

 guished by ferocity and utter disregard of the " adjustments " of 

 others, whether of their own race or of different races, seem to thrive 

 well enough, better even than the more moderate and considerate. 

 Forces really are at work tending to eliminate the more violent and 



