Man and the Coinmunily. 199 



of Nature upon man which most powerfully affects 

 human development. The higher and more com- 

 plex the civilization, the more entirely is it under 

 intellectual, rather than Nature control, — by Na- 

 ture control being here meant the influences 

 exerted by food, climate, and all the causes affect- 

 ing natural selection among the lower animals. 



One of the most marked characteristics of civi- 

 lized man is the high development of the altruistic 

 sentiment, the care for others instead of the care 

 for self. In the lower life the creature is, as a rule, 

 more selfish, more egoistic, is more apt to think 

 first and only of self-preservation, self-comfort, self- 

 gratification. Exceptions to this rule are found in 

 the case of certain insects, which live in communities 

 and which show an individual subordination to the 

 good of the community very like that seen in 

 human life; and among the females of those ani- 

 mals that rear their young; very rarely among the 

 males, excepting, in part, in the division of birds. 



Altruism in its scientific sense might almost be 

 used as a synonym for civilization, and nowhere is 

 the effect of altruism more noticeable than in the 

 sex-life. 



There is a certain harsh line of division between 

 the sexes in the lower life which is softened and 

 lessened in the human. The influence of the altru- 

 istic feelings, which in the human being have so 

 wonderfully and uniquely developed, has operated 

 to a certain extent tQ obliterate those sex-charag- 



