For the savage, undeveloped person does not regard egoism as a bad attribute, and he thus uses it openly without shame or restraints. He steals and murders in broad daylight wherever he finds it possible. The somewhat more developed person senses some measure of his egoism to be evil, and he is at least ashamed to use it in public, to steal and kill openly. But in secrecy he still commits his crimes.

The even more developed feels his egoism to be a loathsome thing indeed, until he cannot tolerate it within him and rejects it completely, as much as he detects of it, until he cannot enjoy the labour of others. Then begin to emerge in us the sparks of love for others, called altruism, which, in general is the good attribute.

And that too evolves in him gradually. First there develops in him the love and desire to bestow upon his family and next of keens, as the verse goes – “thou shall not ignore you own flesh”. When he develops further, the attribute of bestowal expands in him to the people around him, which are his town’s men or his nation. And so he adds, until he finally develops love for all humanity.

Courtesy of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMMLqmLaBNY