Implications of Evolution 461 



Evolution and Ethics 



The conflict between our moral sentiments and the 

 operation of " nature " is also an old conception, and not to 

 be credited to the modern critics of Darwinism. This should 

 hardly need pointing out. Yet excessive heat is frequently 

 engendered as one after another of our contemporaries sud- 

 denly discovers that " struggle for existence " or " natural 

 selection " violates his notions of right and wrong. It was 

 long ago discovered that man, as a moral being, attains his 

 preeminence not by following his impulses, not by exerting 

 force ruthlessly, not by over-riding or exploiting the weak. 

 The moral sense and the moral codes demand at every point 

 the replacement of impulse with considered action. Does 

 not the doctrine of descent from lower forms of life re- 

 verse all this? Not necessarily; and certainly no more than 

 the doctrine of perpetual conflict between God and Satan. 



New discoveries tell us only what we have always be- 

 lieved, unless we constantly adjust our beliefs to new dis- 

 coveries. The history of the reaction to Darwinism shows 

 that rationalization follows the line of least resistance. To 

 some it is obvious that the community In which loyalty 

 and sacrifice are habitual among the members must prosper 

 and progress, even though loyalty and self-sacrifice some- 

 times place the individual at a disadvantage. On the other 

 hand, some are aware that the comparison to the beasts 

 implied the naturalness and therefore, and in so far, the 

 rightness of beastly living. Perhaps the best answer to this 

 fallacy is to be found in calm reconsideration of the implica- 

 tions of such a primitive pedagogical device as the fable. 

 Probably each of us has been at one time or another exposed 

 to the classical fables by somebody's desire to impress a 

 " moral " lesson of some kind. While we recognize that the 

 young child easily Identifies himself with the persons In these 

 simple dramas, do we ever fear that the Identification will 

 go so far as to transform the character of the child completely 

 into that of a fox or a goose? 



