1 82 The Morality of Nature 



conduct as the greater phase of the dual life performs more 

 efficiently than the lesser or individual phase. But for 

 all matters which the individual does properly and better by 

 himself, they reserve freedom, or claim freedom if it has 

 been lost. And for all conduct of all kinds, that in union 

 as well as that in solitude, they reserve so much freedom as 

 shall make all lawful acts voluntary and not controlled by 

 others, but only by the individual perceptions. 



In these principles appears the reason and necessity for 

 that retardation which sometimes seems to oppose progress 

 by undue regard for ignorance. Such delay is often a 

 concession to the higher law of unity of purpose, by a lower 

 law of immediate value, which value is only deferred in 

 order to avoid disaster in too precipitate action. Reform 

 proceeding by education is seen to produce voluntary co- 

 operation, and thus to be more permanent, as well as more 

 probably right, than enforced and violent reconstruction. 



We may reason that the adoption of altruism does not 

 involve a cancellation of the primary law of self-preserva- 

 tion, but really an effort toward the maintenance of that law 

 and right, by the added efficacy of the consent and assistance 

 of others. The natural effect of altruism is reciprocal bene- 

 fit. If the virtue of an effort for another were in the doer 

 alone, then all the tyranny of oppression, and fetish sacri- 

 fice, and of inquisition, might be justified; but if the good- 

 ness lies in the benefit as perceived and appreciated by the 

 object, then his unwillingness must be sufficient to pro- 

 nounce the effort defective. There follows inevitably the 

 right of the object, the person benefited, to accept or reject, 

 encourage or decry, such action, according to his own per- 



