THE ETHICS OF THE SAVAGE 257 



and his utter ignorance of the world beyond the 

 community in which he lives, that he should look 

 upon and treat all outsiders as nobodies — as beings 

 without any claims whatever upon his humanity 

 or mercy. The imagination is the picturing power 

 of the mind, the power by which beings are able 

 to get out of themselves and into the places of 

 others, the power which enables us to view the 

 world comparatively — that is, from different points 

 of view. This power of mind, which imparts to 

 the higher types of intelligence their mobility and 

 sympathy, is rudimentary in the savage. This 

 has been proved by Tylor in his study of the 

 comparative mythology of savages. It is this 

 lack of imagination in the savage, combined with 

 his ignorance and his simplicity of life, which 

 gives to him his ferocity, and which renders him 

 inaccessible to those higher sentiments of justice 

 and righteousness which are — well, which are, at 

 least, dreamed about and theorised about by the 

 more evolved savages of the ' civilised world.' 

 The world, to the simple mind of the savage, is, as 

 it is to the mind of the child, the world in which 

 he lives and moves — the world which he feels, 

 hears, tastes, and sees. The horizon is the boun- 

 dary of the universe. Beings beyond his tribe are 

 outside of the world. If they exist at all, it is as 

 a very different order of beings from him and his 

 people. They are not of kin to him, speak a 

 strange tongue, and have monstrous customs and 

 superstitions. How could they be in any way 

 related to him ? They are his enemies — vague 



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