PRELIMINARY. 233 



advocate such conduct towards inferior races, as implies the 

 belief that civilized social forms can with advantage be im 

 posed on uncivilized peoples ; that the arrangements which 

 seem to us vicious are vicious for them ; and that they would 

 benefit by institutions domestic, industrial, or political 

 akin to those which we find beneficial. But acceptance of 

 the truth that the type of a society is determined by the 

 natures of its units, forces on us the corollary that a regime 

 intrinsically of the lowest, may yet be the best possible under 

 primitive conditions. 



Otherwise stating the matter, we must not substitute our 

 developed code of conduct, which predominantly concerns 

 private relations, for the undeveloped code of conduct, which 

 predominantly concerns public relations. Now that life is 

 generally occupied in peaceful intercourse with fellow-citizens, 

 ethical ideas refer chiefly to actions between man and man ; 

 but in early stages, while the occupation of life was mainly 

 in conflicts with adjacent societies, such ethical ideas as 

 existed referred almost wholly to inter-social actions : men s 

 deeds were judged by their direct bearings on tribal welfare. 

 And since preservation of the society takes precedence of 

 individual preservation, as being a condition to it, we must, 

 in considering social phenomena, interpret good and bad 

 rather in their earlier senses than in their later senses ; and 

 so must regard as relatively good, that which furthers sur 

 vival of the society, great as may be the suffering inflicted on 

 its members. 



437. Another of our ordinary conceptions has to be much 

 widened before we can rightly interpret political evolution. 

 The words &quot; civilized &quot; and &quot; savage &quot; must have given to 

 them meanings differing greatly from those which are current. 

 That broad contrast usually drawn wholly to the advantage 

 of the men who form large nations, and to the disadvantage 

 of the men who form simple groups, a better knowledge 

 obliges us profoundly to qualify. Characters are to be found 



