THE VALUE OF LIFE 



personal and the social value of life are now far higher 

 than they were in the days of our savage ancestors. . 

 Modern life is infinitely rich in the high spiritual interests 

 that attach to the possession of advanced art and science. 

 We live in peace and comfort in orderly social and civic 

 communities, which have every care of person and 

 property. Our personal life is a hundred times finer, 

 longer, and more valuable than that of the savage, 

 because it is a hundred times richer in interests, experi- 

 ences, and pleasures. It is true that within the limits 

 of civilization the differences in the value of life are 

 enormous. The greater the differentiation of conditions 

 and classes in consequence of division of labor, the 

 greater become the differences between the educated and 

 uneducated sections of the community, and between 

 their interests and needs, and, therefore, the value of 

 their lives. This difference is naturally most conspicuous 

 if we consider the leading minds and the greatest heights 

 of the culture of the century, and compare these with 

 the average man and the masses, which wander far 

 below in the valley, treading their monotonous and 

 weary way in a more or less stupid condition. 



The state thinks quite otherwise than the individual 

 man does of the personal worth of his life and that of his 

 fellows. The modern state often demands for its pro- 

 tection the military service of all its citizens. In the 

 eyes of our ministers of justice the value of life is the 

 same whether there be question of an embryo of seven 

 months or a new-born child (still without consciousness) , 

 an idiot or a genius. This difference between the per- 

 sonal and the social estimate of life runs through the 

 whole of our moral principles. War is still believed 

 by highly civilized nations to be an unavoidable evil, 

 just as barbarians think of individual murder or blood- 

 revenge ; yet the murder of masses for which the modern 

 state uses its greatest resources is in flagrant contradic- 



409 



