Morals as a Factor in Organic Evolution 663 



We find further, however, that the morahty of nations, of 

 famihes, and of individuals may fluctuate according to the 

 environal conditions and stimuK of each. Thus, to return 

 to a case cited in the last chapter, the healthy morals of early 

 . Rome became relaxed, contaminated, sapped away, and ulti- 

 mately almost abolished by importation of luxurious Greek 

 living, of immoral gods and goddesses, of truly stolen wealth 

 for which they ransacked the ancient world, and of lying, 

 adultery, and debauchery in their midst. They proenvironed a 

 pathway of progressive immorality that led ultimately to 

 national disintegration. Uhlhorn's historic description (208: 

 92-144) is as sad as it is graphic. 



Recent descriptions of Napoleon as a boy show that he 

 had great qualities, but quick, sensitive, unbridled disposi- 

 tion, that might morally change for better or worse, accord- 

 ing to the surroundings in which he was placed, the ambitions 

 he might cherish, or the action and reaction between himself 

 and others. The moral outcome, thirty years thereafter, is 

 Emerson's graphic picture: "He was thoroughly unscrupu- 

 lous. He would steal, slander, assassinate, drown, and poison, 

 as his interest dictated. He had no generosity, but mere 

 vulgar hatred: he was intensely selfish; he was perfidious; he 

 cheated at cards; he was a prodigious gossip and opened letters, 

 and delighted in his infamous police, and rubbed his hands 

 with joy when he had intercepted some morsel of intelligence 

 concerning men and women about him, boasting that 'he 

 knew every thing ." ' 



It has often been assumed or asserted, though of course 

 quite erroneously, that a system of morals, in order to obtain 

 acceptance, must be in written form. But the general system 

 of morals that silently, pervasively, and yet efiiciently guides 

 the communities of many animals, e. g., ants, as of uncivilized 

 man in many cases, yields conclusive proof that morals are 

 slowly acquired, gradually become far-reaching in their scope, 

 and are steadily handed down in the biological continuity 

 of different species. For when we compare tlie geogra])hical 

 groups of a species, or tlie species of a genus, stages in the 

 process of moral evolution can clearly be observed. 



