Henry Baird Favill, AB, MD, LL.D., 1860-1916, a ... - University Library

630 HENRY BAIRD FA V ILL
difficulty, by any means. It is only the first step in the
process. The question then arrises, which should have
come first, if great political parties cannot reach the solution
by giving up their special privilege and helping the mass of
people along, why, what is there that can attain the result?
Let me call your attention to the fact that all masses of
people are made up of individuals, and in the last analysis
the quality of things in any given civilization is related, not
to the mass, average quality, but to the individual; and it
brings us right down to the question of individual standards,
individual measure, individual quality, on this very basis of
selfishness and unselfishness.
I think I should have great difficulty if I undertook to
define to you what is selfishness and what is unselfishness.
What is selfishness? Let us think about it for a minute.
Going on blindly, seeking our own, doing the best for ourselves,
ignoring ever^^body else,
perhaps would be regarded
as selfishness. Deliberately seeking to do the best for
others, always ignoring ourselves, w^ould be unselfishness.
So, it is only for practical purposes that we have got to consider
selfishness and unselfishness as being opposites, which
is not strictly true. But to-day we will talk as though that
were so.
We find many people defending themselves in conduct
that we charge them with pursuing upon the basis of selfishness—
we find them defending themselves upon the basis of
fundamental unselfishness. They say, "It is best that we
do so-and-so ; it accrues to our advantage, but on the whole
it is for the good of all." That may be true, or it may not.
The burden of proof is heavv^ on the individual.
When we come to unselfishness, w^e also find it very hard
to be certain. We do a given thing, we make a given effort
to do something for somebody else. Stop and think of all
the ramifications of that! Does it come back to ourselves,
to our advantage or not ?
In a large proportion of cases our
unselfish act comes back to our advantage, and really takes