Purpose

is due to the pa age of a nervous current of sensation to the nerve centres; and such nerve action follows the line of least resistance like an electric current. The line is prepared by previous action of the same kind. Thus conscience becomes stronger as the line of action is repeated; and it is intuitive instinct when it has, in time, been made the habit of the race for generations. Hence it becomes “innate,’ though disuse will impair it as much as use will strengthen it (Darwin, Descent of Man, i, pp. 32-33); the disused limb or organ shrivels, and that which is used grows more powerful; and so conscience also grows or decays in nations or in persons. Darwin says (pp. 98-99) that “any animal whatever endowed with well marked social instincts, the parental and filial being here included, would inevitably acquire a moral sense or conscience, as soon as its intellectual powers had become as well—or nearly as well—developed as in man.” Instinct is then originally but the result of purpose, and of the action that has, in the past, proved most useful to the race or to the individual—which is the true meaning of “morals”—and it therefore develops in society rather than in solitude. We find self-sacrifice, courage, tenderne , sympathy, and devotion; constancy—even conjugal—and obedience to authority; to be habits—which we call virtues—even among animals. The collie dog shows a deep sense of responsibility, and of the nece ity of obedience. We may say that this is due to fear of punishment, or to hope of reward; but looking deeper we find that hope and fear are the causes of all conduct, of all conscience, and of all religious belief. Many animals even surpa savage men in recognition of the nece ity of common action and of obedience. We institute comparisons only between wild men and animals. “The distance physically, and intellectually, between a Newton and a Ceylonese ‘rock-Veddah’ is considerably greater than between the latter and a chimpanzee”; and both have advanced little since Pliny described them nearly 2000 years ago. Even the language we use, to expre philosophical ideas, originated in imitative cries, accompanied by gestures, belonging to the age when all men were naked— as so many still are. “Moral” acts are those conducive to general comfort and happine , meeting in consequence with social approbation. | “Jmmoral” acts are selfish ones, meeting therefore with general dis- | approbation as unfair to others. Ethics are social compacts. When tribes are ever on the brink of starvation, and the old and sick are a — burden to themselves, and to others, the savage conscience conceives that they should be slain, as a pious deed on the part of the vigorous son who can work for self and offspring. 514