3 68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



by means of its short feet, but uses its long spines to perform the 

 manoeuvre. The process is a tedious one, and there are generally 

 numerous failures ; but the creature perseveres until it eventually 

 succeeds. 



-*- 



ETHICS AND THE DEVELOPMENT THEORY. 



By GEOEG VON GITZYCKI. 



THE question of the bearing of the theory of evolution upon morals 

 deserves a serious examination. The doctrine of development 

 breaks at many points with cherished traditional notions, and its op- 

 ponents have predicted that it would result in a spiritual revolution 

 which would convulse society to its foundations by destroying the sanc- 

 tions of conscience and paralyzing the religious sense. 



The science of ethics has a theoretical and a practical part ; the 

 former, founded on the study of the nature of volition and the moral 

 feelings, the latter having for its object to determine what ought to 

 be. The latter, the establishment of rules of conduct, is the real ob- 

 ject of ethics, while the purely theoretical researches have only the 

 value of means. 



Ethics can, it appears to us, learn much out of the theory of devel- 

 opment, or can at least find a confirmation of single principles hitherto 

 recognized by only a part of the students of morals. This theory 

 teaches that the feelings and inclinations, as well as the bodily forms, 

 are results of the adaptation of the living being to the conditions 

 of his existence, and are therefore to be recognized as life-maintain- 

 ing functions ; that, the more complicated are the conditions of life, 

 the less perfect is this adaptation : therefore, in the human world, 

 spontaneous feelings and impulses are not safe guides. "We may 

 learn from it, also, to regard the moral feelings and conceptions 

 as the most important part of the adapting of man to the conditions 

 of social existence. It teaches us to bring into special considera- 

 tion the moral conceptions of the most successful nations in the struggle 

 for existence ; for, if their views of right and wrong had diverged 

 greatly from what is really beneficial to society, they would not have 

 reached their dominant position. But the recognition that, in conse- 

 quence of the complicated conditions of life, the adaptation is never 

 complete, must restrain us from ever regarding the " positive morals " 

 of a people that is, the sum of their actual moral ideas as being ab- 

 solutely perfect. 



The development theory, which has made us acquainted, as perhaps 

 no former generation has been, with the idea of progress, has also ac- 

 customed us to regard the moral as one of the fields in which progress 

 takes place ; and, furthermore, to look forward to perfection in the 



