GROWTH OF ALTRUISM IN THE CIVILIZED PERIOD 223 
We say that the blood circulates through the body and then for 
convenience we say it flows out from the heart, and back to the heart, 
and these relative terms of direction have a value of their own; but we 
do not say that the flow of the blood toward the capillaries arose through 
some defect of the inward flow through the veins. Egoism and altruism 
are two abstract nouns which we may conveniently use to denote differ- 
ent aspects of the conduct of a man in relation to other men. When 
the act is regarded as favorable to the other men (under proper definitions 
of the word favorable) the act is called altruistic; when it is regarded 
as favorable to the agent the act is spoken of as egoistic. 
There is no inherent probability that egoism and altruism differ 
from time to time in amount either in individuals or in nations. Of 
course there are diseased states of the body in which the circulation is 
disturbed, but these lead toward the destruction of tissues and in a 
larger sense to death. And in other analogies a disturbance of equi- 
librium in active or moving things leads to a change of state, which 
from some point of valuation may be called destruction or ruin, etc. 
It is likewise obvious that some men are excessively “‘egoistic;’ but it 
is not at all obvious that their egoism leaves them fully alive and in the 
enjoyment of a maximum of psychic health and activity. Is it not 
possible that a cold-blooded scientific ethics would give morality the 
solution of its time-honored, paradoxical question, “Why should I 
be unselfish ?” It might prove that the answer would be akin to this: 
I want good arteries because I want a good circulation. It is not altru- 
ism nor egoism that men and nations crave, but life, and that more 
abundantly. Altruism was emphasized as a means of giving men life 
more abundantly. It may have been worshiped as an entity, but 
richness of life is the real entity, and it may be got, like a good circulation, 
by relieving congestions and purging of obstacles. 
If we look at genetic treatments of altruism we usually, but not 
quite always, find it treated as something that was created or invented 
or discovered or originated, by some inspired man or group of men, or 
as something that arose in very early conditions of society after egoism 
had failed to make men healthy and happy. But now if we leave out 
conscious motivation and clear ideas of purpose and character and 
