( ; iiap IV Moral Sense. gy 



CHAPTER IV. 



Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and tub 

 Lower Animals — continued. 



!he moral sense — Fundamental proposition — The qualities of social 

 animals — Origin of sociability — Struggle between opposed instincts — 

 Man a social animal — The more enduring social instincts conquer other 

 less persistent instincts — The social virtues alone regarded by savages — 

 The self-regarding virtues acquired at a later stage of development — 

 The importance of the judgment of the members of the same community 

 on conduct — Transmission of moral tendencies — Summary. 



L fully subscribe to the judgment of those writers 1 who 

 maintain that of all the differences between man and the 

 lower animals, the moral sense or conscience is by far the 

 most important. This sense, as Mackintosh 2 remarks, " has a 

 "rightful supremacy over every other principle of human 

 " action ;" it is summed up in that short but imperious word 

 ought, so full of high significance. It is the most noble of all 

 the attributes of man, leading him without a moment's hesita- 

 tion to risk his life for that of a fellow-creature; or after due 

 deliberation, impelled simply by the deep feeling of right or 

 duty, to sacrifice it in some great cause. Immanuel Kant 

 exclaims, " Duty ! Wondrous thought, that workest neither by 

 " fond insinuation, flattery, nor by any threat, but merely by 

 " holding up thy naked law in the soul, and so extorting for 

 " thyself always reverence, if not always obedience ; before 

 "whom all appetites are dumb, however secretly they rebel; 

 '* whence thy original ?" 3 



This great question has been discussed by many writers 4 of 

 consummate ability ; and my sole excuse for touching on it, is 

 the impossibility of here passing it over ; and because, as far as I 

 know, no one has approached it exclusively from the side of 

 natural history. The investigation possesses, also, some in- 



s 



1 See, for instance, on this subject, and Moral Science,' 1860, p. 543- 

 Quatrefages, ' Unite' de i'Espeee 725) of twenty-six British authors 

 Humaine,' 1861, p. 21, &c. who have written on this subject, 



2 ' Dissertation on Ethical Philo- and whose names are familiar to 

 sophy,' 1837, p. 231, &c. every reader ; to these, Mr. Bain's 



3 ' Metaphysics of Ethics,' trans- own name, and those of Mr. Lecky, 

 Med by J. W. Semple, Edinburgh, Mr. Shadworth Hodgson, Sir J. 

 i836, p. 136. Lubbock, and others, might be 



4 Mr. Bain gives a list (' Mental added. 



