THE EVOLUTION THEORY. 



295 



have only to look at the middle ages. On the 

 other hand, we find the highest degree of morality 

 in men who are entirely freed from church creeds. 



Outside of all creeds and churches, there ex- 

 ists in germ in the heart of every man a true natural 

 religion, which is inseparably identified with our na- 

 ture's best side. Its first precept is love and the 

 abnegation of our natural egoism in favor of our 

 neighbor, and in view of the good of the race to 

 which we belong. This moral law is more ancient 

 than church religion ; it is the development of 

 the social instincts of animals. The beginnings 

 of it we find among divers classes of mammals, 

 birds, and insects. Agreeably to the law of as- 

 sociation and the division of labor, many indi 

 viduals unite to form a community, a common- 

 wealth. The existence of these commonwealths 

 necessarily depends on the reciprocal relations of 

 their members, and on each one foregoing his in- 

 dividual interest for the good of the whole. The 

 consciousness of this necessity, the feeling of 

 duty, is simply a social instinct, and instinct is 

 always a psychic habit which, acquired through 

 adaptation and then becoming hereditary, at last 

 appears to be innate. 



If we would understand the great force of the 

 sentiment of duty in animals, we need only over- 

 turn an ant-hill. What do we see amid the ruin ? 

 We see thousands of ant-citizens all intent, not 

 on saving their own lives, but in protecting the 

 precious commonwealth to which they belong. 

 The doughty men-at-arms make sturdy opposition 

 when we would introduce our hand ; the nurses 

 of the young ones save the so-called " ants'-eggs " 

 — the nymphae on whom the future of the com- 

 munity depends ; the industrious workers begin 

 on the spot, with indomitable courage, to clear 

 away the debris, and to construct a new dwelling- 

 place. The wonderful degree of civilization found 

 among ants, bees, and other social species, sprung 

 originally from the rudest beginnings, just as our 

 human civilization did. 



Nay, even the tenderest affections of the hu- 

 man heart, those which inspire all our poetry, we 

 find in germ in the animal kingdom. What shall 

 we say of the deep mother's love of the lioness, 

 the touching conjugal affection of parrots known 

 as "inseparable," the devotion and fidelity of the 

 dog ? The noble sentiments of sympathy and love 

 which thus find expression are but perfected in- 

 stincts, as is the case in man himself. 



So understood, the ethics of the evolution 

 theory does not need to seek for new principles ; 

 we have only to refer to their true bases the an- 

 cient precepts of duty. Long prior to all church 

 religions, these natural precepts governed man's 

 common and legal life, just as they governed the 

 social life of animals. The churches should 

 utilize these weighty data, instead of combating 

 them. The future is not of that theology which 

 vainly struggles against the victorious doctrine 

 of evolution, but rather of that which will adopt 

 it and turn it to account. 



Far from apprehending, from the influence of 

 the evolution doctrine on our religious convictions, 

 an overthrowing of all existing moral laws, and a 

 deplorable emancipation of egoism, we look rather 

 for the establishment of natural morals based on 

 the immovable foundation of natural laws. By 

 acquainting us with our true place in Nature, an- 

 thropogeny demonstrates the necessity of our an- 

 cient social obligations. 



Like the theoretic philosophy of Nature, prac- 

 tical philosophy, and pedagogy, henceforth will 

 derive their principles not from pretended revela- 

 tions, but from the natural conceptions of the 

 doctrine of evolution. This victory of monism 

 over dualism opens to us rich horizons of hope 

 for the unending progress of our development, 

 moral as well as intellectual. Bearing all this in 

 mind, we must say, All hail to the evolution the- 

 ory, reconstituted in our day by Darwin ; it is the 

 mightiest lever of general science, or Nature- 

 philosophy, both pure and applied ! 



