358 THE RIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE. 



imperative," but on the solid ground of social 

 instinct, as we find in the case of all social animals. 

 It regards as the highest aim of all morality the 

 re-establishment of a sound harmony between egoism 

 and altruism, between self-love and the love of one's 

 neighbour. It is to the great English philosopher, 

 Herbert Spencer, 1 that we owe the founding of this 

 monistic ethics on a basis of evolution. 



Man belongs to the social vertebrates, and has, 

 therefore, like all social animals, two sets of duties — 

 firstly to himself, and secondly to the society to which 

 he belongs. The former are the behests of self-love 

 or egoism, the latter of love for one's fellows or 

 altruism. The two sets of precepts are equally 

 just, equally natural, and equally indispensable. If 

 a man desire to have the advantage of living in an 

 organized community, he has to consult not only his 

 own fortune, but also that of the society, and of the 

 "neighbours" who form the society. He must 

 realize that its prosperity is his own prosperity, and 

 that it cannot suffer without his own injury. This 

 fundamental law of society is so simple and so 

 inevitable that one cannot understand how it can be 

 contradicted in theory or in practice ; yet that is done 

 to-day, and has been done for thousands of years. 



The equal appreciation of these two natural 

 impulses, or the moral equivalence of self-love and 

 love of others, is the chief and the fundamental 

 principle of our morality. Hence the highest aim of 

 all ethics is very simple — it is the re-establishment of 

 "the natural equality of egoism and altruism, of the 



1 Professor Haeckel places Mr. Spencer's works at the head of the 

 bibliography in the German edition. We have omitted these lists, as 

 they are chiefly German. — Trans. 



