292 THE ETHICAL KINSHIP 



to exist for being altruistic toward those who are 

 not men. The doctrine that we human beings 

 may perform upon the other inhabitants of the 

 earth all sorts of injurious acts, and that these acts 

 when so performed by us are perfectly right and 

 proper, but that these same things when done by 

 others to us are crimes, is the logic of pure 

 brutalitarianism. It is a doctrine utterly without 

 intelligence, at variance with every sentiment of 

 justice and humanity, and has no legitimate exist- 

 ence outside the fibrous brains of ruffians. 



Right and wrong are qualities belonging to two 

 diverse kinds of conduct. They are the qualities 

 which render conduct respectively proper and 

 improper. All terrestrial races (unless the very 

 lowest) have the power of experiencing two kinds 

 of conscious states — the desirable (pleasurable) 

 and the undesirable (painful). Now, if beings 

 were indifferent as to what sort of conscious 

 states entered into and made up their experiences, 

 there would manifestly be no such thing as pro- 

 priety and impropriety in the causing of these 

 states. But they are not indifferent. The pleasur- 

 able experiences are the experiences all beings are 

 seeking, and the painful ones are the ones they 

 are all seeking to avoid. Those acts which help 

 or tend to help beings to those experiences for 

 which they are striving are, therefore, right and 

 proper, and are, they and their authors, called 

 good. While those acts which compel beings to 

 undergo that which they are striving to avoid are 

 improper and wrong, and are, they and their 



