Every truth man has discovered, every sound moral precept, is rooted in Nature. She is the rough model to be followed by man if his institutions are to endure. He goes wrong when he opposes her laws; he is right when he is in agreement with her, refining away her crudeness. Man creates nothing; he can only imitate, often poorly. He boasts of his works--really they are the product of Nature working through him, using him as an instrument. We have seen that Nature does not hesitate to destroy the individual if the species to which it belongs is thereby benefitted. She looks beyond the present generation to the welfare of the race that is to be, thus teaching us the highest morality we can know, the broadest religion, i.e., that the good of the race, the COMMON GOOD, is all important, and that the individual should willingly sacrifice his labor, his life, when the good of humanity demands it. Jesus Christ, Socrates, and a host of less known martyrs have proved their devotion to the common good by making the supreme sacrifice. In so doing they have hewn to the line chalked out by Mother Nature eons ago when inorganic matter first felt the stir of life. Jesus was announcing this principle when he said, “For whosoever will save his life”--strive for self alone--“shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake”--and the sake of humanity which Jesus himself valued higher than his own life--“shall find it.” Though only a few will have occasion to suffer martyrdom, the call to all of us is to live the life of unselfishness, be the end what it may. To live for the race is just as noble, if less dramatic, as to die for it. Thus we find that Nature’s most vital principle is in perfect accord with the profoundest religious truths. We have been taught that Nature is cruel, that her hands are red with the blood of the innocent, but this idea was born of our short-sightedness. We could not see beyond the outward act to the underlying law and its results. For man so to shape his life and deeds as to be in harmony with the great law of natural selection and with the fundamental principle of religion does not mean self-effacement, the suppression of individuality. On the contrary, it means self-development, individuality in the best sense. As a species or a race is composed of individuals, the more highly developed are the individuals the greater the species. Self-development is the growth of the individual out of narrow selfishness and in accord with the laws of human betterment. Selfishness expanded, refined and ennobled becomes altruism, the love of others.