ided by the strong bond of social
affinity existing between the members of a group. They worked together
in a fuller sense than any other animals except the ants and bees.
From the original social group another and closer community seems
gradually to have developed, the group of kindred. This was a natural
outgrowth from the family, whose bond of affection was extended to
include more distant relatives, until there emerged the organized group
of kindred known as the "Village Community," which seems everywhere to
have preceded civilization. This bond of kindred gradually extended,
combining men into larger and larger groups, until the clan, the horde,
and the tribe emerged, their members all linked together by the reality
or the fiction of common descent. Such was the form of organization that
existed in Greece and Rome in their early days, and made its influence
felt far down into their later history. It existed indeed, at some
period, over almost all the earth.
As the group widened, the bond of sympathy weakened. Love in the family
found its counterpart in fellow-feeling in the tribe, in patriotism in
the nation. It is undoubtedly true that desire for personal protection
is one of the strong influences which bind men into societies. The hope
of advantage in other directions and the pleasure of social intercourse
are other combining forces. Yet below these rational elements has always
abided the emotional element, the sympathetic attraction which binds
kindred closely together, and which exerts some degree of influence on
all members of the same group or nation.
The development of the ethical principle in mankind is largely due to
the extension of the sentiment of social sympathy. For ages it was
confined to the immediate group. Such was the case even in civilized
Greece, intellectually one of the most advanced of peoples, but morally
very contracted. The Greeks were long divided into minor groups, with
the warmest sentiment of patriotism uniting the members of each
community, while their common origin bound all the Hellenes together.
But this feeling failed to cross the borders of the narrow peninsula of
Greece, all peoples beyond these borders being viewed as barbarians, in
whose pleasures and pains no interest was felt, and whose misfortunes
produced no stir of sympathy in the Grecian heart. Even Aristotle taught
that Greeks owed no more duties to barbarians than to wild beasts, and a
philosopher who declared th
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