ETHICS
condition of animal solidarity. In Dr. Unwinds words,
'we begin with a society in which all the individuals are
locked together by forces we do not understand; such a
society displays no energy.* Now, this animal solidarity
has certain merits; it is preferable, for example, to the
animal individualism of unrestricted intra-specific com-
petition. But these merits are sub-ethical; in other words,
animal solidarity is below good and evil. People on the
zoistic level are too much preoccupied with, and too
completely de-energized by, unrestricted sexual indulgence
to be able to pay attention to 'their actual relations with
God and with one another/ Awareness is the condition
of any moral behaviour superior to that of animals. The
individual cannot transcend himself unless he first learns
to be conscious of himself and of his relations with other
selves and with the world. A measure of sexual continence
is the pre-condition of awareness and of other forms of
mental energy, conative and emotional as well as cognitive.
But the pre-condition of moral behaviour need not itself
be moral. As a matter of historical fact, the energy
released by sexual continence has frequently been directed
towards thoroughly immoral ends. Mental and social
energy is comparable to the energy of falling water j it
can be used for any purpose that men choose to put it to
—for bullying the weak and exploiting the poor just as
well as for exploring the secrets of nature, for creating
masterpieces of art or for establishing union with ultimate
reality.
Chastity is one of the major virtues inasmuch as, without
chastity, societies lack energy and individuals are con-
demned to perpetual unawareness, attachment and animality.
In another sense, however, chastity can rank only as a
minor virtue; for, along with such other minor virtues as
courage, prudence, temperance and the like, it can be
used solely as a means for increasing the efficiency of
3*5