io8 The Morality of Nature 



But what it is first necessary to note is not the quantity or 

 profitableness of this situation, but its actual reality and its 

 effect. The fact that here is a family with only a few 

 adults in the active generation is a fact to begin with which 

 they did not and do not control. It was settled and remains 

 settled by the lives of ancestors, in conduct of which the 

 living share many consequences good and bad. And in these 

 consequences there is a general approximate compensation. 

 Possibly conditions have compelled or suggested this small 

 number. They may have passed through vicissitudes, such 

 as epidemic disease, and thus it may be that the small family 

 is a selection of survivors who enjoy a compensating im- 

 munity gained in that way; and represent a conquest over 

 environment. 



Another possibility is that in some national or clan stress 

 or in some crisis demanding altruistic sacrifice, this family 

 has lost members for the good of the nation. In that case 

 compensation is much more remote and complicated. It may 

 be partly made in gain of nobility of character and be recog- 

 nized by public appreciation. But its chief value must be 

 sought in the extended conduct unit of national size. Then 

 the sacrifice appears as a race payment for the benefits which 

 have been received in advance, in several generations of se- 

 curity of life for which, and for future continuance, a peri- 

 odic payment is needed. 



Thus the conduct unit, as a product of the past, is found 

 in possession of qualities which, under certain circumstances, 

 are a compensating and growing credit; and it is a matter of 

 common knowledge that such circumstances and conse- 

 quences do really occur abundantly. 



