increase in importance until it becomes an indispensable strand in the
web of life, we may be sure that by a continuance of the same process
its influence is destined to increase still more in the future. Such has
been the case with the function of sympathy, and with the ethical
feelings which have grown up along with sympathy and depend largely upon
it for their vitality. Like everything else which especially
distinguishes Man, the altruistic feelings were first called into
existence through the first beginnings of infancy in the animal world.
Their rudimentary form was that of the transient affection of a female
bird or mammal for its young. First given a definite direction through
the genesis of the primitive human family, the development of altruism
has formed an important part of the progress of civilization, but as yet
it has scarcely kept pace with the general development of intelligence.
There can be little doubt that in respect of justice and kindness the
advance of civilized man has been less marked than in respect of
quick-wittedness. Now this is because the advancement of civilized man
has been largely effected through fighting, through the continuance of
that deadly struggle and competition which has been going on ever since
organic life first appeared on the earth. It is through such fierce and
perpetual struggle that the higher forms of life have been gradually
evolved by natural selection. But we have already seen how in many
respects the evolution of Man was the opening of an entirely new chapter
in the history of the universe. In no respect was it more so than in the
genesis of the altruistic emotions. For when natural selection, through
the lengthening of childhood, had secured a determinate development for
this class of human feelings, it had at last originated a power which
could thrive only through the elimination of strife. And the later
history of mankind, during the past thirty centuries, has been
characterized by the gradual eliminating of strife, though the process
has gone on with the extreme slowness that marks all the work of