278 THE ETHICAL KINSHIP 



welfare of all the inhabitants of a world. The 

 refusal to put one's self in the place of others and to 

 act toward them as one would that they would 

 act toward him does not depend for its wrongful- 

 ness upon who makes the refusal or upon whether 

 the refusal falls upon this or that individual or set. 

 Deeds are right and wrong in themselves ; and 

 whether they are right or wrong, good or evil, 

 proper or improper, whether they should be done 

 or should not be done, depends upon their ejfects upon 

 the welfare of the inhabitants of the universe. The 

 basic mistake that has ever been made in this 

 egoistic world in the judging and classifying of 

 acts has been the mistake of judging and classify- 

 ing them with reference to their effects upon 

 some particular fraction of the inhabitants of the 

 universe. In pure egoism conduct is judged as 

 good or bad solely with reference to the results, 

 immediate or remote, which that conduct pro- 

 duces, or is calculated to produce, on the self. 

 To the savage, that is right or wrong which affects 

 favourably or unfavourably himself or his tribe. And 

 this sectional spirit of the savage has, as has been 

 shown, characterised the moral conceptions of the 

 peoples of all times. The practice human beings 

 have to-day — the practice of those (relatively) 

 broad and emancipated minds who are large enough 

 to rise above the petty prejudices and 'patriotisms' 

 of the races and corporations of men, and are able 

 to view ' the world as their country ' (the world of 

 human beings, of course) — the practice such minds 

 have of estimating conduct solely with reference 



