Chai\ V. MOKAL FACULTIES. 165 



a deeply hidden feeling. It is incredible that a savage, 

 who will sacrifice his life rather than betray his tribe, 

 or one who will deliver himself up as a prisoner rather 

 than break his parole, 7 would not feel remorse in his 

 inmost soul, though he might conceal it, if he had failed 

 in a duty which he held sacred. 



We may therefore conclude that primeval man, at a 

 very remote period, would have been influenced by the 

 praise and blame of his fellows. It is obvious, that the 

 members of the same tribe w r ould approve of conduct 

 which appeared to them to be for the general good, and 

 would reprobate that which appeared evil. To do good 

 unto others — to do unto others as ye would they should 

 do unto you, — is the foundation-stone of morality. It 

 is, therefore, hardly possible to exaggerate the impor- 

 tance during rude times of the love of praise and the 

 dread of blame. A man who was not impelled by any 

 deep, instinctive feeling, to sacrifice his life for the good 

 of others, yet was roused to such actions by a sense 

 of glory, would by his example excite the same wish 

 for glory in other men, and would strengthen by exer- 

 cise the noble feeling of admiration. He might thus 

 do far more good to his tribe than by begetting offspring 

 with a tendency to inherit his own high character. 



With increased experience and reason, man perceives 

 the more remote consequences of his actions, and the 

 self-regarding virtues, such as temperance, chastity, &c, 

 which during early times are, as we have before seen, 

 utterly disregarded, come to be highly esteemed or even 

 held sacred. I need not, however, repeat what I have 

 said on this head in the third chapter. Ultimately a 

 highly complex sentiment, having its first origin in the 



7 Mr. Wallace gives cases in his ' Contributions to the Theory of 

 Natural Selection/ 1870, p. 354. 



