454 
Natural Science and Morality . [July, 
attainments of knowledge must therefore be to know ones 
interests * It could not therefore be expected that the lower 
animals would have advanced anything like so far as man 
in this respect. That most important .of interests, Soci- 
ability,” which requires some penetration and thought to 
appreciate its value and consequences beforehand, is where 
the lower animals notably fail ; and it is a significant fact 
that the higher the animals stand in the scale of intelligence 
the more do they appreciate the value of sociability. Thus 
the ant, various mammals, the higher apes, &c., associate 
in communities, and are known to be distinguished ior their 
exceptional brain development. Man therefore has pro- 
gressed in proportion as he has discovered the value 
(interest) of sociability; i.e., he has advanced in the same 
ratio as he has gained a knowledge of his own interests (all 
blunders being errors against one’s interests).! 
It forms a noteworthy confirmation of this to consider the 
progress of any civilised nation in the past. At first we 
may observe that the knowledge of self-interest had only 
developed so far as to cause small communities or tribes to 
associate together, who, however, were in continual war 
with neighbouring tribes. If we thence look at the leudal 
times, then the knowledge of self-interest had spread fur- 
ther, and there was much greater harmony and association; 
but still the parts of a single nation were in frequent strife 
and contention. At the present day the harmony has . ex- 
tended itself to whole nations ; but still these are occasion- 
ally at war : nevertheless the violation of mutual interests 
here involved is becoming every year more and more clearly 
seen. Thus we may perceive that the advance in intelli- 
gence, by affording a clearer appreciation of self-interest, 
has always coincided with the development of association, 
* This fad may make it cease to be surprising that people may run after the 
most pernicious sectarian delusions and imagine them to be to their interests. 
+ As in some respects an instrudive illustration of the opposition of selfish- 
ness and self-interest, Free Trade might be mentioned. At one time, when 
intellect was perhaps not quite so highly developed as now, a species of com- 
mercial suicide (called by irony “ Protection ”) is known to have been largely 
practised, by which it was sought to derive benefit at the expense of one s 
neighbour by taxing his goods. The strangulation of trade and violation of 
self-interest thus resulting might be compared to the col \ dltlon of ^ ^ 
individual who isolates himself from his neighbours, and who makes no true 
friends, and, nevertheless, whose intellect is often of so low an order as to be 
unable to discover the cause of his unhappiness. It is notorious that selfish 
individuals are generally of inferior intelledual capacity. No one will pro- 
bably doubt for one moment that selfish persons who isolate themselves, an 
miss the great benefits of sympathy and friendship, are Dnh »PP^ 
morality of self-interest (as the opposite of selfishness) must commend itselt 
as an irrefragible truth. 
