August 24, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



93 



still in a very mixed condition. Great difficulties arise from the 

 different languages spoken by the representatives of the several 

 nations represented. Another (hfficulty arises from unequal repre- 

 sentation. The attendance is voluntary, the members pay their 

 own expenses, and the time and money required must hinder many 

 who are deeply interested from attending the meetings; and this 

 hinderance is greater in proportion as the distance from the place 

 of meeting increases. The attendance shows this : at the Paris 

 meeting there were 194 Frenchmen and 110 foreigners; at the 

 Bologna meeting there were 149 Italians and 75 foreigners ; and 

 at the Berlin meeting, 163 Germans and 92 foreigners. This, it 

 will be seen, does not give general geology a fair representation 

 when questions come up which are to be decided in favor of the 

 majority .voting on them. Such votes can only be tentative, and 

 the decisions will hardly be acquiesced in until a more equable rep- 

 resentation is brought to act upon the unsettled questions, and 

 many more countries have been fully represented. They do, how- 

 ever, bring out the questions upon which action is to be taken, and 

 prepare the way for a right decision. The congress at Berlin aimed 

 to embody the present condition of European geological science 

 and cartography by preparing a map of Europe in which the legend 

 gave all the larger known divisions of the geological column, and 

 the colors on the map showed their locations. 



As it stands now in the list of names drawn up by the congress, 

 we are reminded of the remarks of Whewell, made more than fifty 

 years ago, that the advancement of three of the main divisions of 

 geological inquiry has during the last half-century been promoted 

 successively by three different nations of Europe, — the (Germans, 

 the English, and the French. The study of mineralogical geology 

 had its origin in Germany ; the classification of the secondary for- 

 mations, each marked by their peculiar fossils, belongs in a great 

 measure to England ; the foundation of the third branch, that re- 

 lating to the tertiary formations, was laid in France. 



With the great accessions which have been made to the general 

 stock of geological knowledge by American geologists, and the 

 general publication of it, it becomes necessary that this should be 

 incorporated in a work which is designed to be comprehensive 

 enough to take in the geology of the world. This list of names for 

 the members of the series undoubtedly satisfied the Europeans 

 who voted upon them ; but they are too local, too geographic, too 

 strange, to have a place in any general series. Names must be 

 given in describing new kinds or occurrences of rocks ; but they 

 should be provisional, and dropped whenever some more character- 

 istic or generally appropriate name can be found. For calling at- 

 tention to the several divisions,/ these names will be very useful, 

 and by their general publication they can be brought to the con- 

 sideration of hundreds of working geologists, who by their contri- 

 butions and suggestions can throw light on the subject, though 

 they may never be able to attend an international geologial con- 

 gress. The advancement of science in modern time is brought 

 about much more by the increased number of workers in the cause 

 than it is by the greater attainments of a few men. With attention 

 properly drawn to this position of geological science, with a great 

 body of workers in the tield, with an immense territory in which to 

 work, and with a notice of three years in advance, we can prepare 

 the case so as fairly to present the claims of American geology to 

 a. representation in a general systein of geology. The congress 

 went no farther in the lists of names : those of the fourth, fifth, 

 and sixth order will be still more difficult to generalize, and it may 

 be that it will be found expedient to leave the names of these orders 

 to be given in the languages of the countries where they find their 

 application. 



It might tend to a more equitable representation of the views of 

 members from different countries, if the number of votes to which 

 each country should be entitled could be equitably settled, and the 

 representation from each country should be in some way controlled 

 by the whole body of geologists ; but in a country like ours, where 

 most geologists have active duties to discharge in the milder sea- 

 sons when meetings are held, this cannot always be had. Besides, 

 the work calls for an individual sacrifice of money and time, which 

 many persons think they cannot properly make, either for the public 

 ^ood or for the benefit of science. 



These are difiiculties which attend the present arrangements for 



work ; and at present I can only bring them to your attention with- 

 out offering any suggestions for their solution. The objects of the 

 congress are worthy and useful ones, and they will be attained. 

 To us they give direction and point to our investigations and 

 studies, and they will be profitable by leading us to a fuller exam- 

 ination of the whole field of geological science as well as to a more 

 careful and demonstrative study of special fields in which our in- 

 dividual work lies. 



ALTRUISM CONSIDERED ECONOMICALLY.' 



The primary motive of human action has always been the care 

 of seif, this being for man nature's first and greatest law. In his 

 unthinking zeal he has often followed this to a degree unnecessary, 

 and consequently harmful to others. In his savage state, and es- 

 pecially in his primeval condition, where he was subject, like all 

 the lower forms of life, to the law of " the survival of the fittest," 

 he could not consider others' interests, because they were so antago- 

 nistic to his own. Often one of two must starve, and each would 

 let it be the other one. He did not even becoine conscious that he 

 was so acting for a very long period of time. It was the progress 

 from a being not human to the being called man when sufficient 

 intelligence had accumulated to make him conscious that he could 

 live and let live. That point was also marked by and synchronous 

 with the acquireinent of such weapons and such skill as enabled 

 man to procure food enough to make the starvation of some un- 

 necessary. Then the war for the survival of the fittest, as known 

 to biology, ceased among men. Ever since, so far as there has been 

 a struggle affecting the survival of the fittest (and that struggle 

 continues to the present day in certain ways), it has been of a dif- 

 ferent sort, and one which must not be confounded with the biologic 

 law of the survival of the fittest. Major Powell has admirably shown 

 how the strictly biologic struggle has ceased in man ; but he has not 

 yet shown, as may be, the character of that struggle, largely in- 

 tellectual, which still works out certain survivals of the fittest. 



Having passed from the point where, if he survive, it must be at 

 the expense of others, man began to recognize and to consider the 

 desires of his fellows ; and among others he counted not only his 

 fellows, but mythical and supernatural beings. Thus appeared 

 the greatest natural basis of religion. It is not strange, therefore, 

 that religion should have existed from very early times, and that it 

 should have taught its votaries especially to regard the needs of 

 others. Its mission was to teach a race whose ancestors had been 

 absorbed for untold ages in caring only for self, to adapt itself to 

 a new environment by learning to care for the wants of others. In 

 caring for others the more powerful soon received superior recog- 

 nition, so it came to pass that supernatural demands took preced- 

 ence of the rest. When that point had become clear, men were 

 easily tempted to profess to represent the gods, in order that they 

 might share the precedence. In this natural way became estab- 

 lished the order of duty which was taught by every religion prior 

 to Christianity; viz., I, To the gods and their representatives, 2. 

 To self, 3. To others. 



Early Christianity must be credited with changing the order of 

 duty to the following : i. To its one supernatural being, 2. To all 

 others equally with self. 



Even under this improved system, many people are led to make 

 great personal sacrifices, in the belief that thereby they are living 

 the noblest life possible to man, when in reality, as it is the object 

 of this paper to show, their sacrifices are either useless, or, what is 

 worse, grossly injurious both to themselves and to the supposed 

 beneficiaries. 



During all the untold years in w^hich it was a physical necessity 

 to regard self even to the injury of others, our ancestors acquired 

 a predisposition thereto which heredity has brought down the stream 

 of time. As being no longer a necessity, its practice long since 

 became one of the recognized evils of the world. We apply to it 

 the opprobrious epithet of ' selfishness.' There is a better term, and 

 one which does not imply a moral quality, for there may be devo- 

 tion to one's own interests which should not be so characterized. 

 Egoism is such devotion to one's own interests : it may be proper, 



* Abstract of an address before ihc Section of Economic Science and St.itistics of 

 the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at Cleveland. O., Aug. 

 15-32, i883, by Charies W. Smiley, vice-president of the section. 



