212 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. [Chap. 



question must be considered), but he has distinctly 

 announced tlie extension of tlie application of his theory 

 to the very phenomena in question. He says:^ " In the 

 distant future I see open fields for far more important 

 researches. Psychology will be based on a new foundation, 

 that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power 

 and capacity by gradation. Light will be thrown on the 

 origin of man and his history." It may not be amiss then 

 to glance at the question, so much disputed, concerning 

 the origin of ethical conceptions and its bearing on the 

 theory of " Xatural Selection."- 



The followers of Mr. John Stuart ^lill, of ^Ir. Herbert 

 Spencer, and apparently, also, of ]\Ir. Darwin, assert that 

 in spite of the great lyrcsent difference between the ideas 

 " useful " and " right," they are, nevertheless, one as to 

 their origin, and that that origin consisted ultimately of 

 pleasurable and painful sensations. 



They say that " Xatural Selection " has evolved moral 

 conceptions from perceptions of what was useful, i.e. 

 pleasurable, by having through long ages preserved a 



' "Origin of .Species," .^th f'.litioii, 1869, p. 577. 



- Since the fiist edition of tliis work appeared, Mr. Darwin lias fully 

 explained his views as to morality, and ha« identified the "moral .sense" 

 with "stronger and more persistent instincts." No argument, however, 

 lias been employed, and no facts adduced, which even tend to answer the 

 objoctions here urged. ^Ir. Darsvin seems not ade([uately to recognize 

 the points which rccjuire to be met, and while he brings forward instances 

 licaring on the ae([uLsition of inatcrialhj moral habits (which are utterly 

 trivial and l)esidc the point), lie literally does not say one word in ex- 

 }»lanation of the genesis o{ /(yrmal morality (with which we are alone con- 

 cerned), nor even pretend to show how the gregarious instinct of a herd 

 becomes metamor])hosed into a common moral judgment. While therefore 

 the author has the satisfaction of feeling that he has not misrepresented 

 Mr. Darwin, he also feels tliat he has nothing whatever substantial to 

 retract, or even to modify, in his former assertions and arguments. 



