II BIOLOGY AND THE STATE 109 



and interest in life such as the present phase of 

 culture fails to supply. 



In opposition to the yiew that the pursuit of 

 Science can obtain a strong hold upon human life, it 

 may be argued, that on no reasonable ground can it 

 appear a necessary or advantageous thing to the 

 individual man to concern himself with the growth 

 and progress of that which is merely likely to benefit 

 the distant posterity of the human race. Our reply 

 is : Let those who contend for the reasonableness of 

 human motives develop, if they can, any theory of 

 human conduct in which reasonable self-interest shall 

 be man's guide. We do not contend for any such 

 theory. By reasoning we may explain and trace the 

 development of human nature, but we cannot change 

 it by any such process. It is demonstrably unreason- 

 able for the individual man, guided by self-interest, 

 to share the dangers and privations of his brother- 

 man, and yet, in common with many lower animals, 

 he has an inherited quality which makes it a pleasure 

 to him to do so ; it is unreasonable for the mother to 

 protect her offspring, and yet it is the natural and 

 inherited quality of mothers to derive pleasure from 

 doing so ; it is unreasonable for the half-starved poor 

 to aid their wholly starving brethren, and yet such 

 compassion is natural and pleasurable to those who 

 show it, and is the constant rule of life. Unreason- 

 able though these things are from the point of view 

 of individual self-interest, yet they are done because 

 to do them is pleasurable, to leave them undone a 

 pain. The race has, as it were, in these respects 



