14 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 
emergence of what is called utilitarian morality. Morality, 
in the strict sense of the term—that is, formal morality— 
also appears to have arisen from sympathy, but not by 
means of selection. The long and constant use by man of 
formal morality has made it instinctive, and has thus given 
rise to the conscience. 
How sympathy gave rise to the conscience is a difficult 
problem, about which we know very little at present, for few 
people have taken up the study of ethics from an observa- 
tional basis. Darwin asks: Why does man regret, even 
though trying to banish such regret, that he has followed a 
natural impulse rather than a higher ideal; and why does 
he further feel that he ought to regret his conduct, while 
such a course never occurs to animals? And he answers: 
Tt is because the higher impulse, due to sympathy, is con- 
tinuous; while the lower one, due to selfishness, is tem- 
porary. And, comparing the transient impressions of past 
indulgence with the ever-present feeling of sympathy, he 
feels that he was mistaken in following the lower impulse. 
And it is this that causes him regret, or even shame.* 
But the process, as described by Darwin, evidently implies 
a considerable intellectual capacity, and, ene is still more 
important, the exercise of free will. For no one coud re 
gret following a lower impulse unless he felt that he had 
the power to choose a higher one. Ethical development. 
therefore, could only commence at a stage far above the 
highest apes, and, probably, above the earlier forms of man. 
Meantime, while this growth of sympathy was taking place, 
the evolution of religion, as already described, would have 
been going on, and the priest would have assumed a-position 
of great importance. It is he who would draw up the stan- 
dard of right and wrong, and thus morality would be rein- 
forced, and stimulated by the religious feeling. 
It, therefore, appears that ethical and religious develop- 
ment were at first separate, but quickly coalesced, until, in 
Christian countries, they are completely blended. But this 
mutual dependence is not so pronounced everywhere. The 
Chinese and Japanese have high codes of morals with very 
indistinct notions of religion; while the Hindus have very 
strong religious feelings, combined with weak ideas of 
morality. However, it is not possible to give even the 
slightest outline of ethical evolution without mentioning the 
religious element. The important point to remember is 
that ethical development is due to a conflict of wishes in the 
individual himself, and is possible only because man has the 
* Descent of Man, 2nd. ed., page 112. 
