446 INVENTION OF THE GOLDEN RULE. 



baboons. But when the intelligence of man was 

 sufficiently developed, they realised the fact, that the 

 welfare of each individual depended on the welfare of 

 the clan ; and that the welfare of the clan depended 

 on the welfare of each efficient individual. They 

 then endeavoured to support by laws the interests 

 of the association ; and, though owing to their 

 defective understandings, they allowed, and even en- 

 joined many customs injurious to their own welfare, 

 yet, on the whole, they lived well and wisely within 

 the circle of their clan. It will now be seen, that the 

 moral laws by which we are guided are all due to the 

 law of self-preservation. It was considered wicked and 

 wrong to assault, to rob, to deceive, or in any way 

 to ill-treat or offend an able-bodied member of the 

 clan ; for, if he were killed or disabled, his services 

 were lost to the clan, and if he were made discontented 

 he might desert to another corporation. But these 

 vices were wrong, merely because they were injurious ; 

 even murder in the abstract was not regarded by them 

 as a sin. They killed their sickly children, and dined 

 upon their superannuated parents without remorse ; for 

 the community was profited by their removal. This 

 feeling of fidelity to the clan, though, no doubt, often 

 supported by arguments addressed to the reason, was 

 not with them a matter of calculation. It was rooted 

 in their hearts ; it was a true instinct inherited from 

 animal and ancient days ; it was with them an idea of 

 Duty, obedience to which was prompted by an impulse, 

 neglect of which was punished by remorse. In all 

 fables there is some fact ; and the legends of the noble 

 savage possess this element of truth, that savages 

 within their own communion do live according to the 

 golden rule, and would, in fact, be destroyed by their 



