EGOISM AND ALTRUISM 251 



several distinct species of altruism) has come into 

 the world as a result of cooperation and con- 

 sanguinity. It has grown out of the cooperation 

 of individuals in families and tribes against their 

 cooperating enemies. Altruism — at least, in its 

 initial stages — is a sort of tribal egoism. Men and 

 other animals have learned to stand by each other 

 and help each other against their common foes 

 because it was the only way in which they were 

 able to stand. Those aggregates that have had 

 strongest this feeling of fraternity have prospered 

 and prevailed, while the less fraternal have gone 

 down. 



The altruism manifested by men in their rela- 

 tions with each other is not different in kind from 

 the altruism and cooperation displayed by other 

 social animals. Human gregariousness — the gather- 

 ing together of human beings into tribes and 

 communities for purposes of companionship and 

 defence — is a part of the phenomena of animal 

 gregariousness in general. The inhabitants of a 

 human town, however much they may think so, are 

 not impelled to associate with each other and to 

 cooperate with each other in the affairs of life by 

 causes or considerations different from those which 

 actuate a society of ants or apes, of wasps or 

 wolves, who do the same things. The ante- 

 cedents of human ethics and society are, there- 

 fore, to be looked for in the ant-hill and the 

 jungle. 



The fact that altruism has been evolved by the 

 cooperation of individuals with each other and 



