The first men who substituted the state of mutual peace for that of
mutual war, whatever the motive which impelled them to take that step,
created society. But, in establishing peace, they obviously put a limit
upon the struggle for existence. Between the members of that society,
at any rate, it was not to be pursued _a outrance_. And of all the
successive shapes which society has taken, that most nearly approaches
perfection in which the war of individual against individual is most
strictly limited. The primitive savage, tutored by Istar, appropriated
whatever took his fancy, and killed whosoever opposed him, if he could.
On the contrary, the ideal of the ethical man is to limit his freedom
of action to a sphere in which he does not interfere with the freedom of
others; he seeks the common weal as much as his own; and, indeed, as an
essential part of his own welfare. Peace is both end and means with him;
and he founds his life on a more or less complete self-restraint, which
is the negation of the unlimited struggle for existence. He tries
to escape from his place in the animal kingdom, founded on the free
development of the principle of non-moral evolution, and to establish
a kingdom of Man, governed upon the principle of moral evolution. For
society not only has a moral end, but in its perfection, social life, is
embodied morality.