- 
ov MR. DARWIN’S CRITICS 169 
for no other reason;” and the most beautiful 
_ eharacter to which humanity can attain, that of the 
~ man who does good without thinking about it, be- 
_ cause he loves justice and mercy and is repelled 
"by evil, has no claim on our moral approbation. 
The denial that a man acts morally because he does 
- not think whether he does so or not, may be put 
upon the same footing as the denial of the title of 
an arithmetician to the calculating boy, because he 
- did not know how he worked his sums. If man- 
_kind ever generally accept and act upon Mr. 
Mivart’s axiom, they will simply become a set of 
most unendurable prigs ; but they never have ac- 
cepted it, and I venture to hope that evolution has 
- nothing so terrible in store for the human race. 
But if an action, the motive of which is nothing 
| but affection or sympathy, may be deserving of 
_ moral approbation and really good, who that has 
ever had a dog of his own will deny that animals 
_ are capable of such actions? Mr. Mivart indeed 
says :—“It may be safely affirmed, however, that 
there is no trace in brutes of any actions simulat- 
ing morality which are not explicable by the fear 
of punishment, by the hope of pleasure, or by per- 
sonal affection” (p. 221). But it may be affirmed, 
_ with equal truth, that there is no trace in men of 
any actions which are not traceable to the same 
motives. If a man does anything, he does it 
either because he fears to be punished if he does 
not do it, or because he hopes to obtain pleasure 
