Morals as a Factor in Organic Evolution 659 



mother is to be credited with moral feeUng when she lavished 

 a self sacrificing love and care upon her child, why not the 

 mother monkey, which, with her yomig one clasped close in 

 her arms, flies over the tree tops, embarrassed in her flight, 

 while danger presses near, yet thinking only of her tender 

 offspring? Why not the w^ounded ape, which, in so many 

 well authenticated cases, has used her last strength to place 

 her little one safe among the foliage, and then has turned 

 round to face the hunters and the death they brought? Why 

 should the maternal care of the bird which so sedulously feeds 

 and guards its fledglings be denied the praise of being moral? 

 And why, when we see a mother desert her little brood, do 

 we feel ourselves entitled to denounce her cruelty in leaving 

 the helpless to perish while she departs to disport herself with 

 another mate? It is only human pride which has made an 

 arbitrary distinction of kind where there is in truth only a 

 distinction of degree. 



"And so of the social virtues. When we read of a digger 

 upon a rough gold field who neglects his chance of the lucky 

 patch just reached in order that he may nurse the slow hours 

 of his dying mate, his conduct affects us by its noble disin- 

 terestedness. When a dog, healthy and naturally of high 

 spirits, abandons the fresh delights of the open air and all 

 the sports it offers, and creeps into the kennel beside his feeble 

 mate to lick its sores and yield it the comfort of loving com- 

 radeship, wherein is any essential difference?" 



Now it is well worthy of remark that the dog, the ele})liant, 

 and the horse have shared with man the results of advancing 

 civilization for at least 6000 years, as ancient carvings and 

 inscriptions testify. The subservient position and brutal 

 treatment at times accorded to them, however, might well 

 "sour their tempers," or turn them into moral delincpients. 

 The fact that they have become so wise, adaptable, and at- 

 tached is proof of advancing mento-moral perfectibility, that 

 under better and more prolonged treatment might result in 

 greatly finer animals. 



But that morals, even where seen in groups that man has 

 long civilized, do not originate with man and spread to or 



