THE DATA OF ETHICS. 
95 
future generations; and besides, excessive unselfishness not 
only fosters selfishness directly, by accustoming others to 
receive and expect undue sacrifices, but it also fosters selfish¬ 
ness indirectly, by tending towards the non-survival of the 
unselfish. A certain degree of egoism, then, is not only 
justifiable, but actually imperative. Try to imagine a state 
of things in which everyone cared for everyone else, and no 
one cared for himself; in which everyone, neglecting his own 
dinner, ran about with tit-bits for his neighbours, while they 
in turn besieged him with their own tit-bits. Clearly if all 
were purely altruistic, givers would be balked by finding no 
recipients; or else unwilling recipients must pretend 
to be pleased, in order to afford pleasure to the givers. 
Again, sympathy is only a representative feeling, and can 
never be quite so vivid as the original feeling which it repre¬ 
sents ; so that if egoistic pleasures and pain should fail, tlieir 
sympathetic reflections must fade away and vanish. The 
image in the mirror will not remain when the imaged body 
is withdrawn. Then, although we may strip ourselves of 
happiness for the sake of others, we cannot give them all that 
we renounce. Bodily health, the joys of' success, and all 
intimate and individual feelings, are as non-transferable as a 
railway ticket. 
And yet altruism has been as necessary as egoism to the 
preservation of the race. Consider its earliest manifestation 
—parental love and care—which “ in its simple physical form” 
is “ absolutely necessary for the continuance of life from the 
beginning,” and which developes in complexity and duration 
with the development of higher organic types. This parental 
care has become an instinct—an insistent, imperative instinct 
—often overpowering the strongest egoistic cravings. Where 
there is family altruism, social altruism has a chance of 
evolving; and we have seen that men living in society are 
obliged to be to some extent altruistic. Their individual 
welfare depends largely on the welfare of the community. 
To be just, to see justice done to others, to maintain and 
improve the agencies which administer justice ; this is the 
true policy of every citizen. But to crown his joy, he must 
be spontaneously kind and beneficent, as well as just, for thus 
only can he know the pleasures of friendship and sympathy ; 
thus only can he renew his youth when he is old, his strength 
when he is infirm, and feel all his lost delights by proxy. 
But if egoism is essential, and altruism also essential, 
and yet the two conflict; what is our hope ? Will the weary 
battle go on for ever ? Is there no prospect of a final 
peace? 
