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found that after three generations reared in the open air, the 

 males recovered their lost power. There can be no doubt that 

 it is a principle in Nature that self-dependence is a condition 

 of strength. When men become dependent upon luxuries and 

 assistance, they lose their physical force. When they cease to 

 use their brains they lose their mental wings. I. 



Selfish Kindness. 



Though selfish kindness is a paradox, its existence is a 

 reality. There are people who are really kind towards us and 

 others, but are so from no creditable motive. Father Kipa, in 

 the account of his sojourn near the mouth of the Ganges, tells 

 us of a set of religionists who are very kind to all sorts of 

 animals and insects, which they neither kill nor eat, but, on 

 the contrary, tend them with great care. Indeed to such a 

 pitch do they carry their kindness, that they have hospitals for 

 lice and fleas, and pay liberally by the hour those who will 

 allow the insects to feed on their blood. They are also most 

 kind to sheep and cows. And why all this 2 Not because 

 they possess disinterested kindness, but because they believe 

 in the transmigration of souls, and that after death they will 

 pass into the body of some animal more or less offensive ac- 

 cording to the good or evil actions of their past life. And 

 further, because they believe after death that a great river must 

 be passed which can only be done by holding on fast to the 

 tail of the sheep or the cow. So that in this, as in a number 

 of other instances to be met with in civilised society, there is 

 really a complete absence of real unselfishness in the act, which, 

 however, may be kind enough in its way. Here we have the 

 expectation of some future advantage as the actual basis of the 

 act. Numbers of deeds which pass for genuine kindness are 

 the result of a complex mixture of motives, amongst which 

 pure charity is not found. Where is the kindness which lends, 

 which does, and which gives, expecting nothing as reward in 

 return either in this world or the other? ME. 



