10 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 



renewed attention and show themselves to be still 

 unread riddles when men have time to think. The 

 beneficent demon, doubt, whose name is Legion 

 and who dwells amongst the tombs of old faiths, 

 enters into mankind and thenceforth refuses to be cast 

 out. Sacred customs, venerable dooms of ancestral 

 wisdom, hallowed by tradition and professing to hold 

 good for all time, are put to the question. Cultured 

 reflection asks for their credentials ; judges them by 

 its own standards ; finally, gathers those of which it 

 approves into ethical systems, in which the reasoning 

 is rarely much more than a decent pretext for the 

 adoption of foregone conclusions. 



One of the oldest and most important elements in 

 such systems is the conception of justice. Society is 

 impossible unless those who are associated agree to 

 observe certain rules of conduct towards one another ; 

 its stability depends on the steadiness with which 

 they abide by that agreement ; and, so far as they 

 waver, that mutual trust which is the bond of society 

 is weakened or destroyed. Wolves could not hunt 

 in packs except for the real, though unexpressed, 

 understanding that they should not attack one 

 another during the chase. The most rudimentary 

 polity is a pack of men living under the like tacit, 

 or expressed, understanding ; and having made the 

 very important advance upon wolf society, that they 

 agree to use the force of the whole body against 

 individuals who violate it and in favour of those 

 who observe it. This observance of a common 

 understanding, with the consequent distribution of 



