Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 9.djvu/617

 LEW DES MEXSCHEXGESCHLECHTS. 605 " Subordination of Pleasures and Pains ". Feelings and Im- pulses are first divided into instinctive and consciously-purposive. Each of these is then further sub-divided with reference to (1) self-preservation and (2) preservation of the species. This arrangement will yield therefore four species of Conduct In- stinctive Egoism, Instinctive Altruism, Intentional Egoism, In- tentional Altruism. In all its forms, however, the principle of Subordination is one and the same, viz., that of " Greater Per- fection, i.?., of more perfect race-maintenance". If we probe the preference accorded to Eace-maintenance over Self-main- tenance both by nature and by man's moral consciousness to the bottom, we find no other reason for it than the relative strength of extra and self-regarding feeling. If we ask why the maternal animal postpones its own interest to that of its offspring we must fall back upon the " Principle of Selection " for answer, upon the universal fact that only classes of animals exhibiting such a tendency survive in the struggle for existence. As Parental Affection is the foundation of Animal Progress, so is Human Progress dependent on the preference for the well-being of the body politic and of posterity to that of the individual and the existing generation. As far as domestic life is concerned there is a consilience between conscious egoism and conscious altruism, for a parent would usually be miserable who did not postpone selfish gratification to the welfare of his (or her) child. The extent of parental effort for the benefit of children, the author declares, should be determined by a consideration of the probable demands that will be made upon the latter, when arrived at maturity, on account of their descendants. The problem is far more complicated, however, when we come to the highest form of subordination, that of individual happiness to the happi- ness of society as a whole. The superiority of a Political State over Anarchy being assumed, there is by no means a short way to determine how far the nation or race is served by suppression of personal aims. The dangerous character of the ground is shown when our author comes to deal with the Socialist pro- paganda. He evidently approves of the present policy of the German government, which aims at forcibly suppressing " the social-democratic agitators". Why? Because " experience has shown that their ideas have not been able to find an echo and assent among the majority and especially among the majority of the more educated in modern civilised states ". " Had the latter been the case," the author naively remarks, " governments would surely have ranged themselves on the side of the majority ". But how is the majority ever to be obtained for any novel prac- tical creed, if the state, represented by its government, sets its face against the "agitation" for changes which a present minority believes will be for the advantage of society ? I admit that I am here giving more prominence to a single illustration than is warranted by the space allotted to it in 41