CONFORMITY TO ENVIRONMENT 187 



lieve that primitive human society gave it its iron grip 

 on every fibre of man's nature. 



Before the animal could safely be allowed to govern 

 itself intelligently it had to serve a long apprentice- 

 ship to reflex action and instinct. And man's moral 

 nature had to undergo a similar apprenticeship to 

 tribal regulation and tribal conscience. Only slowly 

 was instinct modified and replaced by intelligent action. 

 And how this old tribal conscience persists. Often for 

 good, although there it were better replaced by an in- 

 dividual conscience working for right. But how slowly 

 you and I learn that there is a higher responsibility 

 than to party or class. How often my vote and action 

 are controlled, not by my own conscience, but by the 

 opinion of my feUows, or the feeling that, if my party 

 suffers defeat, God's work will suffer at the hands of 

 my opponents. And what is all this but the survival 

 in a very degenerate form of the old tribal conscience 

 of primitive man? And he knew, and could know, 

 nothing better : I can and do. 



But society slowly works for unselfishness. The love 

 learned in the family manifests itself in ever-widen- 

 ing circles ; it must do so if it is the genuine article. 

 It works for neighbors and friends, then for the poor 

 and helpless of the community. Then it spreads to 

 other communities and nations. For genuine love 

 recognizes no bounds of time or place. Slowly we 

 learn that we are our brother's keepers, and that the 

 brotherhood cannot stop short of the human race. 

 Goodness and kindness radiate from one, perhaps un- 

 known, member of the community to his fellows, and 

 thence all over the world. And the world is the better 

 for his one action. 



