648 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



And, happily, of the three sets of brain areas, that which forms 

 the physical basis of the moral faculties is by far the most capa- 

 ble of improvement by cultivation. It is the part which most 

 quickly and fully responds to educative influences. And there is 

 entire correspondence in the improved outward conduct, which 

 may as truly be looked upon as the effect of increased brain- 

 power as stronger muscular action is of more highly developed 

 muscles. 



History demonstrates the jjre-eminent educability of the moral 

 part of man. The ancient athlete did not differ essentially from 

 his modern ectype. There is not much to choose intellectually 

 between Cicero and Wendell Phillips, between Aristotle and Her- 

 bert SjDencer, between Copernicus and Charles Darwin, between 

 the prehistoric genius who first smelted iron ore and Edison. 

 The intellectual status of the educated classes of ancient Rome 

 did not differ materially from that of the corresponding classes 

 of modern London or New York ; but compare their moral 

 status ! The wealth, beauty, and fashion of Rome assembled in 

 eager thousands to witness the entertaining spectacle of wholesale 

 human butchery : we stigmatize a bull-fight as intolerable sav- 

 agery, worthy only of belated Spain, Portugal, or Mexico, and 

 even the blood and bruises of a prize-fight are too much for the 

 humanity and self-respect of any but blacklegs, thieves, " sports," 

 and of a few scions of royalty and other gz/asi-respectable men. 

 The ancients punished not only their criminals but often their inno- 

 cent captives with death by torture : imagine a populous city of 

 our day, absorbed in its various employments and pleasures, uncon- 

 cerned while in full sight on a neighboring plain men are for days 

 together writhing and moaning out the inconceivable agonies of 

 crucifixion ! Not only would such a thing be impossible in our 

 day, but we are actually divided in opinion as to whether painless 

 death by electrocution is not too barbarous a way of disposing of 

 criminals. The ancients immured their lunatics and idiots in 

 noisome subterranean dungeons, and left their paupers, their halt, 

 blind, and deaf to shift for themselves or to depend upon casual 

 private benevolence : we build almshouses, hospitals, and asylums, 

 and our best scientific skill is taxed to its utmost in behalf of 

 our unfortunates of these classes. 



Such are a few of the ways in which improvement in the aver- 

 age moral sentiment of humanity within the Christian era is 

 shown. We wonder at the monstrous cruelties of past ages. 

 How could they have been possible, we ask, since " human nature 

 has always been the same " ? But human nature has not always 

 been the same ; it has always been changing ; it is changing now, 

 and it will always continue to change. And the rate of improve- 

 ment is continually accelerating. Those born since the war find 



