196 THE LESSON OF EVOLUTION 



objection, for it seems to me that the idea which 

 would move his actions is : What is good for the 

 medicine-man must be good, or must be thought to 

 be good, for everyone else. 



We see among the Polynesians and Melanesians 

 the institution of tabu gone rather mad. But yet 

 the morals of these races, at the time of Captain 

 Cook's visit, must have been due to tabu ; for they 

 had no religion that was of any practical impor- 

 tance. But, however this may be, the fact that the 

 code of morals differs somewhat in different nations 

 shews that these codes are of human origin. 



But the process, as described by Darwin, evi- 

 dently implies a considerable intellectual capacity, 

 and, what is still more important, the exercise of 

 free-will ; for no one could regret following a lower 

 impulse, unless he felt that he had the power to 

 choose a higher one. Ethical development, there- 

 fore, 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 would 

 have been going on, and the priest would have 

 assumed a position of great importance. It is he 

 who would draw up the standard of right and wrong, 

 and thus morality would be reinforced and stimu- 

 lated by the religious feeling. 



It therefore appears that ethical and religious de- 

 velopment were at first separate, but quickly 

 coalesced, until, as in Christian countries, they are 

 completely blended. But this mutual dependence 

 is not so pronounced everywhere. The Chinese and 



