if a man were murdered the relatives of the mur. dered man were the only ones who had the right to do anything about it. They usually came together at such a time and consulted about the matter, and decided what punishment or revenge should be inflicted on the murderer. The rulers of the tribe had nothing to say or do in the matter.

In ancient Greece there were no officers whose duty it was to prosecute criminals. "Indeed," says Lubbock, "it seems that the purpose of courts of justice was at first not so much to punish offenders as to restrain the fury of the avengers."

The right of revenge has been gradually limited with the passing of the centuries. Laws have been passed from time to time prescribing in what cases the right should or should not be exercised, and the extent to which punishment should be inflicted. Today, among all higher peoples, courts of justice have been established where any one who is injured by another can go and make his complaint, and receive satisfaction thru the decrees of a judge. This is, at least, the theory of courts, altho in practice courts are not always just. The judge is generally assisted in making his decisions by a jury who listen to the evidence on both sides and then give their verdict. Individuals are not authorized to "take the law into their own hands."

There are many vestigial survivals among higher peoples of the old primitive practice of al

lowing individuals to settle their differences themselves. The duel is one of these. The vendetta is another. The vendetta is a private blood-feud in which a family seeks to avenge an injury to one of its members by injuring the offender or his family in return. This half-savage form of socalled "justice" prevails in Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, and, to a considerable extent, under the name of "feuds," in the mountainous parts of Kentucky, Virginia, and other southerly states.

The instinct of revenge, which we find in our natures and which we see manifested even in the decrees of courts of justice and in the theories of punishment of all higher peoples, is a vestigial survival from the natures of our savage ancestors. It had its origin in those warlike times of early man when every individual was compelled to fight and to inflict injury-for-injury in order to maintain himself in the world. We continue to feel this instinct today and allow ourselves to act upon it, even tho our moral ideals prompt us to be patient and forgiving and charitable, because the machinery of our nature is so old and has been going round and round so long in a certain way that we can't stop it.

Our natures are not modernized. And one reason why we are not modernized is because we do not realize that we are so largely out-of-date. Many instincts of our nature are adapted to a state of the world that has passed away. We have many promptings within us that we do not need.

We have within us many impulses that have no business to be there. And the purpose of these lessons is to teach you the existence of these impulses, and that it is your duty as civilized beings to crush them. These impulses are the "beasts" of our nature, and contend constantly with our better impulses for mastery. They are older and more fundamental and often more powerful than our better impulses, and drive us to do things in spite of our better selves. But it is of great advantage to us in this struggle to understand the origin and nature and the dishonorable character of the forces with which we contend.

5. The Selfish Instinct.

Selfishness is regard for oneself-partiality toward that part of the universe which is bounded by one's own skin. It is the general nature of men to disregard the Golden Rule-to treat themselves more considerately than they do others. The Golden Rule commands us to have the same interest in others and the same enthusiasm for the well-being and prosperity of others as we have for ourselves. But our machinery is not built for this kind of conduct. It is merely another one of those many inconveniences which we find in our natures resulting from our lowly, animal origin.

Selfishness may consist simply of regard for oneself, but with regard for self is usually associated a disposition to do injuries to others.

Selfishness is a general term. It includes such

qualities as cruelty, hate, intolerance, rudeness, unkindness, injustice, narrowness, and the like. Selfishness is often called Egoism, from the Latin word Ego, which means I.

The opposite of selfishness (or Egoism) is Altruism, which means regard for others. Altruism shows itself in such qualities as kindness, sympathy, charity, forgiveness, love, pity, public spirit, fraternity, courtesy, generosity, patience, justice, and the like.

In the ideal human being there is the same amount of regard for others as there is for oneself, and the same amount of regard for self as for others. There is a balance of Egoism and Altruism. The Ideal Man obeys the Golden Rule. He treats others with the same regard as he would if they were a part of himself.

The over-amount of selfishness in human nature is the one great misfortune of mankind, for it leads to nearly all the wrongs that men inflict upon each other. But it is not simply a human misfortune. The same condition exists in the natures of nearly all animals. Everywhere on earth, from the dwellers in the deeps to the feathered spirits of the sky, we find individuals seeking their own satisfactions and their own ends in disregard of the ends and satisfactions that others are seeking. Hence, the universal war, and hence the war-like natures found everywhere in the world. The planet is steeped in selfishness and inhumanity.

But we higher beings of the earth have found

out that might is not necessarily right. We are learning that it is better to co-operate than to go on wasting our energies fighting each other. We believe it is better to make a treaty of agreement, by which each is allowed a fair share of the enjoyments and privileges of the world, than it is for each to continue to try to have his way and to get everything for himself. And the Golden RuleAct toward others as you would act toward a part of yourself-represents this Great Treaty of Peace which the most nearly civilized men are in the act of agreeing to.

The over-regard for ourselves, which we find in our natures, is, therefore, another survival from the dark ages of savagery and animality out of which we higher peoples have come. We higher peoples are trying to live lives of peace and cooperation, but we find it very hard to do so and we are at best only partially successful, because we have left in us so much of the machinery of savages and beasts.

6. Other Vestigial Instincts.

There is one thing that should be very vividly realized in order to understand why it is that there are so many instincts left over from the savage that are not needed by us higher peoplesin other words, in order to understand why it is that there are so many things that were natural and proper for the savage to do that are regarded by us higher peoples as wrong.