whole territories and erase scores of cities. And when, on the other
hand, we remember that there is an Aborigines Protection Society,
that there are Commissioners in certain colonies appointed to protect
native interests, and that in some cases the lands of natives have been
purchased in ways which, however unfair, have implied some recognition
of their claims; we may say that little as the compromise between
egoism and altruism has progressed in international affairs, it has
still progressed somewhat in the direction indicated.
CHAPTER XIV.
CONCILIATION.
§ 92. As exhibited in the last chapter, the compromise between the
claims of self and the claims of others seems to imply permanent
antagonism between the two. The pursuit by each of his own happiness
while paying due regard to the happiness of his fellows, apparently
necessitates the ever-recurring question--How far must the one end be
sought and how far the other: suggesting, if not discord in the life of
each, still, an absence of complete harmony. This is not the inevitable
inference however.
When, in the _Principles of Sociology_, Part III, the phenomena
of race-maintenance among living things at large were discussed,
that the development of the domestic relations might be the better
understood, it was shown that during evolution there has been going
on a conciliation between the interests of the species, the interests
of the parents, and the interests of the offspring. Proof was given
that as we ascend from the lowest forms of life to the highest,
race-maintenance is achieved with a decreasing sacrifice of life,
alike of young individuals and of adult individuals, and also with a
decreasing sacrifice of parental lives to the lives of offspring. We
saw that, with the progress of civilization, like changes go on among
human beings; and that the highest domestic relations are those in
which the conciliation of welfares within the family becomes greatest,
while the welfare of the society is best subserved. Here it remains to
be shown that a kindred conciliation has been, and is, taking place
between the interests of each citizen and the interests of citizens at
large; tending ever toward a state in which the two become merged in
one, and in which the feelings answering to them respectively, fall
into complete concord.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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