nor massacre their
prisoners. Starting from the purely selfish ground Hobbes could prove
conclusively that everybody benefited by the social compact which
substituted peace and order for the original state of war. Is this,
then, a reversal of the old state of things--a combating of a "cosmic
process"? I should rather say that it is a development of the tacit
alliances, and a modification so far of the direct or internecine
conflict. Both were equally implied in the older conditions, and both
still exist. Some races form alliances, while others are crowded out of
existence. Of course, I cease to do some things which I should have
done before. I don't attack the first man I meet in the street and take
his scalp. One reason is that I don't expect he will take mine; for, if
I did, I fear that, even as a civilised being, I should try to
anticipate his intentions. This merely means that we have both come to
see that we have a common interest in keeping the peace. And this,
again, merely means that the tacit alliance which was always an
absolutely necessary condition of the survival of the species has now
been extended through a wider area. The species could not have got on
at all if there had not been so much alliance as is necessary for its
reproduction and for the preservation of its young for some years of
helplessness. The change is simply that the small circle which included
only the primitive family or class has extended, so that we can meet
members of the same nation, or, it may be, of the same race, on terms
which were previously confined to the minor group. We have still to
exterminate and still to preserve. The mode of employing our energies
has changed, but not the essential nature. Morality proper, however,
has so far not emerged. It begins when sympathy begins; when we really
desire the happiness of others; or, as Kant says, when we treat other
men as an end and not simply as a means. Undoubtedly this involves a
new principle, no less than the essential principle of all true
morality. Still, I have to ask whether it implies a combating or a
continuation of a cosmic process. Now, as I have observed, even the
animal mother shows what I have called a _de facto_ altruism. She
has instincts which, though dangerous to the individual, are essential
for the race. The human mother sacrifices herself with a consciousness
of the results to herself, and her personal fears are overcome by the
strength of her affections. She in