ndered it
thoughtfully. "Let me see, it means something about cooperation, doesn't
it?"

"Well, in a way there has come to be a sort of connection," I answered
unsurprised by this time at such gaps in his vocabulary, which, like his
knowledge, was the acquirement of a self-read, self-educated man, whom no
one had directed in his studies, and who had thought much and talked
little or not at all. "An altruistic act is an act performed for the
welfare of others. It is unselfish, as opposed to an act performed for
self, which is selfish."

He nodded his head. "Oh, yes, I remember it now. I ran across it in
Spencer."

"Spencer!" I cried. "Have you read him?"

"Not very much," was his confession. "I understood quite a good deal of
_First Principles_, but his _Biology_ took the wind out of my sails, and
his _Psychology_ left me butting around in the doldrums for many a day.
I honestly could not understand what he was driving at. I put it down to
mental deficiency on my part, but since then I have decided that it was
for want of preparation. I had no proper basis. Only Spencer and myself
know how hard I hammered. But I did get something out of his _Data of
Ethics_. There's where I ran across 'altruism,' and I remember now how
it was used."

I wondered what this man could have got from such a work. Spencer I
remembered enough to know that altruism was imperative to his ideal of
highest conduct. Wolf Larsen, evidently, had sifted the great
philosopher's teachings, rejecting and selecting according to his needs
and desires.

"What else did you run across?" I asked.

His brows drew in slightly with the mental effort of suitably phrasing
thoughts which he had never before put into speech. I felt an elation of
spirit. I was groping into his soul-stuff as he made a practice of
groping in the soul-stuff of others. I was exploring virgin territory.
A strange, a terribly strange, region was unrolling itself before my
eyes.

"In as few words as possible," he began, "Spencer puts it something like
this: First, a man must act for his own benefit--to do this is to be
moral and good. Next, he must act for the benefit of his children. And
third, he must act for the benefit of his race."

"And the highest, finest, right conduct," I interjected, "is that act
which benefits at the same time the man, his children, and his race."

"I wouldn't stand for that," he replied. "Couldn't see the necessity for
it, nor the