GREAT PAGAN RETROGRESSION 55 



whole matter, in short, is that altruism or the 

 good of others " is only enlightened egoism " for 

 the good of oneself. And " this fundamental law 

 of society, " concludes Haeckel, " is so simple and 

 so inevitable that one cannot understand how it can 

 be contradicted in theory or in practice as is done 

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



This is Haeckel's system of monistic ethics. 

 What it represents in reality is the standard of 

 primitive man. There is naturally and as a matter 

 of course no place in it for that stupendous conflict 

 between limited interests resting on force and the 

 interests of the Universal which forms the main 

 theme of human history. 



Thus the categorical imperative of the moral 

 law which demands by an overwhelming instinct 

 the sacrifice of self, and which Kant, therefore, 

 summarizes in the maxim, " Act at all times in 

 suchwise that the act may hold good as a 

 universal law," becomes to Haeckel " Kant's 

 curious idol." 1 Similarly, the command of the 

 Founder of Christianity, " Love your enemies, 

 bless them that curse you, do good to them that 

 hate you, and pray for them that despitefully 

 use you and persecute you," is pronounced by 

 Haeckel to be "as useless in practice as it is un- 



1 The Riddle of the Universe, chap. xix. 



