THE PLACE OF CONSCIENCE IN EVOLUTION. 521 



self; " " I am born to pursue my own happiness ; " " The whole world 

 is mine to occupy, plunder, and rule over, so far as I find a power within 

 me to do it and to prevent others." He was, in short, the incarnation 

 of perfect selfishness. No one, of course, supposes that these " thoughts " 

 amounted to anything more than vague impressions in the minds of the 

 first men, till they grew into positive convictions under the fostering 

 power of progressive and multiplied experiences. All that seems cer- 

 tain is, that there was an era in the history of man when there was add- 

 ed to his nascent conscience that sense of ph} T sical or necessary obliga- 

 tion expressed in our word " must." If he was to avoid destruction, it 

 was borne in upon his mind that he " must " act in such and such a way; 

 his perception of right, that is, of his claim to existence, demanded of 

 him a csrtain course of action (hardly yet perhaps of conduct), and de- 

 manded it in the most brief and imperative fashion. In this stage of 

 human life, before men entered into social relations, we can plainly dis- 

 cern that aspect of conscience which we have described by the word 

 "instantaneous," and which has seemed to so many minds indepen- 

 dent of, and prior to, any social experiences. We do but reproduce 

 this ancient fashion of our race when, putting aside all opposing con- 

 siderations, and refusing to listen to arguments based upon expediency 

 or advantage, we say peremptorily and decisively, " I owe it to myself 

 to do this at once." 



3. The Family Stage. The phenomena of primeval family life are 

 so obscure, so varied, and so complicated by institutions like polygamy 

 and polyandry, that in making even the most general and apparently 

 common-sense observations we are obliged to express ourselves with 

 caution and reserve. One indubitable fact, however, stands out impres- 

 sively amid all the chaos, and affords us a sufficient standpoint for indi- 

 cating the precise growth of conscience at this stage of its existence. 

 I mean, of course, the maternal care of offspring. It was from this 

 deeply-rooted instinct that men first learned to transfer to the beings 

 whom they loved, and whose helpless weakness appealed to them for 

 protection, the same rights which they claimed for themselves. But 

 however important and indeed enormous is the step thus made in the 

 evolution of conscience, we must beware of making too much of it at 

 this stage of its growth. For the first parents, even when preserving* 

 and protecting their children, could only regard their children's rights 

 as part of their own, which they were entitled to defend against all op- 

 posing forces ; nor could they possibly have imagined that their chil- 

 dren had any rights as against themselves. Still, when every deduction 

 has been made, the fact remains that the sense of an obligation due to 

 others besides ourselves, and perhaps too from ourselves, became part 

 of the human consciousness, and men learned that if they wished to do 

 well unto themselves they must make efforts of care and protection for 

 the life and for the welfare of others. All the earlier annals of our race 

 seem to show that this consideration for others, even those dearest to 



