CHAPTER II 



ALTRUISM FUNDAMENTAL 



The cohesion of humanity in the larger conduct units or- 

 ganized for co-operation in industry and in government and 

 social activities, depend upon a spirit of mutual trust and 

 support which is in fact the elemental form of altruism. 

 This is not a new impulse, however, it is the reassertion of 

 the original unity of life. In nature, life does not appear 

 simply as the possession of a privileged individual, — that is 

 its lesser aspect. The greater is seen as a property of an 

 undying ego forever broadening into a race-stream of many 

 in community. This community is a consequence of the 

 fundamental unity of life descending from a common origin; 

 and altruistic organization is its self-expression, and moral- 

 ity is the due regard for the interests of this greater life. 

 The grandest idealized altruism is not a creation of humanity 

 and of the intellect nor a special revelation to man. It is a 

 cultivation or development in nobler form of a thing which 

 began in the beginning and which is shared by all living 

 creation. The aspect of it which is distinctly human is the 

 later conscious knowledge of its moral function and value, 

 a knowledge which is reached by inductive reasoning, and 

 consequently can only appear after the evolution of mind. 

 The contrast between altruism and aggression arises in the 

 contest of primitive life against life, for survival by greater 

 fitness, when a limited environment is occupied by two crea- 



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