New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-03-28
To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot. !,
Or meteor like, flame lawless through
the void.

the VO1d,
Destroying others, by himself destroyed
Pope's ::self-love,' is what may be
termed most appropriately ssphysical
egotism'', our natural instinct for self
! preservation, and, we may add for .ex-
pansion; which is fully justified as long
as it does not infringe upon the claims
and rights of others. Says Goethe in
one of his '.Zahme Xenien'':
''Sie shelton einander Egoisten: o..
| Will jeder doch nur sein Leben fristen.
Wenn der und der ein Egoist,
So denke, dass du es selber bist.
| Du whilst mach deiner Art bestehn,
| Musst selbst auf deiren Nutzen sehn
| Damn verdict ihr das Geheimnis besitzen
Euch saemtlich unter einander zu nuetzen
! Doch den lasst nicht zu euch herein,
| Der andern shadet um etwas zu se1n.'
! This is in harmony with what R1eckert
in his s'Wisdom of the Brahmin' says
about egotism, bad and good We can
not possibly care for every rybody; only we
should partalze freely in the joy and hap.
| piness of those that have reason to re-
joice, and symphatize with the unhappy
and unfortunate we meet in life; in 9th
er words we should envy the fortunate
nor be Indifferent toward the lnckless
and afflicted. But we must first live
ourselves in order to be able to do our
full share for the good of homanity; ex-
cessive altruism and seif-sacrifce, the ex-
treme Numerically opposed to unjusti-
fed egotism, does ourselves harm with
out being of any lasting value or ad-
vantage to our fellowmen.
In concluding these remarks it may be
permitted to point out what part egot-
ism plays in some of the more import
ant ethical systems.
In the moral system Of classic Greece
the foundation of the moral obligation
is derived from its relation to happiness
or well-being, and it is therefore charac-
ter1zed by the term ..Eudemonism'', The
highest good, the most perfect happiness
of the individual is here aspired to; and
so. although the wise men of Greece
meant the true happiness of man, which
includes all one can wish for, practically
individual egotism governed every thing,
for no regard was taken of the cause of
| all humanity.
Closely related to this is the so-called
"Ut1litar1anism" term first used by
Bentham in 1902: from the Italian Bee
| caria be adopted the idea that the great
est happiness of the greatest number
should be the end and aim of all our So
cial and political institutions. This c''n-
stitutes progress, no doubt, over End
emonism, since the Happiness to be at
| tanned is not that of individuals, but of
the whole of human society; however
the intellectual aod moral improvement
is not as prominent in this doctrine as
| the striving for outward prosperity, which
| is egotism, although it may not be of the
| coarsest kind. 1t is also plain that such
utilitarians as go farther and want the
| rectitude of an action indicated and
tested by its apparent usefulness, cannot
be condemned too strongly. They can
! not infer that they mean the true useful
| ness, for this may not be visible at once,
and in our short and fragile existence
often never appears; so this would be
misleading to most men as being friv-
olous playing with words.
| As to the Christian morality with its
| principal commandment 'loye your fell
low-men as you love yourself. and God
above alp it will suffice here to say that
| it depends entirely upon the individual
following it, how strong a motive egot-
ism should form, for we know that it
may be equalled by the love of others,
but seldom is.
The great philosopher Kant in his eth
les tries to crush egotism entirely by set
ting up the formula ssthou canst, for thou
shouldst" the categoric imperative
and then recognizing as purely moral on
ly such actions as are done / in simple
compliance with the principle of duty.
Schiller was the first to modify this by
maintaining that if a good action afford
ed us Joy and satisfaction, it was none
the less meritoricus; and it is indeed in
this world a very pardonable egotism to
prefer agreeable feelings in connection
with moral actions to the stern feeling
of duty exclusively, or even disagreeable
sentiments.
We would then say Let US do our duty
L