104 The Morality of Nature 



take up the trust. Now with this point of view, individual 

 responsibility becomes a different thing. It affects a com- 

 pounded being of the individual and offspring. And the co- 

 partnership is an organization of which the members cannot 

 stand alone. It permits of separate or lone action, at times 

 it compels it, but at all times benefits and burdens are to be 

 met, which were not of that creature's separate making, and 

 at all times his acts are originating benefits and burdens 

 which he will not meet, but which his offspring will. And 

 this relationship evidently extends indefinitely into all the 

 life of humanity and perhaps even beyond. As brothers 

 and cousins are related so in lesser degree are all others con- 

 cerned in conduct, so that the remote relationship which we 

 know exists to unite a nation, is just as remotely binding 

 them in consequences of conduct. But we must not think 

 this supersedes responsibility. In any particular action or 

 class of actions there is an inner and outer circle, a single 

 creature or group for whom the action is taken, and all the 

 rest of the world on the other side. It is still the individual 

 in the derivative sense of the word, in comparison with the 

 rest of creation, but now it becomes evident that most fre- 

 quently that indivisible unit consists of an allied group in- 

 stead of a single being: this group being small for some 

 affairs and large for others. The smallest group is that in 

 which individual action is qualified only by the inclusion of 

 such family as the individual belongs to. He may be inter- 

 ested entirely alone, he may be with parents and grand- 

 parents, or with children and grandchildren, or one with all 

 of these, the normal man will inevitably be linked with both 

 past and future to some degree and for some time. Thus the 



