52 The Descent of Man 



social instinct were the basis of the moral sense, it is in- 

 fallibly certain i that courage must have come to be regarded 

 as supremely ' good/ and cowardice to be deserving of the 

 deepest moral condemnation. And yet what is the fact ? A 

 coward feels probably self-contempt, and that he has incurred 

 the contempt of his associates, but he does not feel ' wicked; 

 He is painfully conscious of his defective organisation, but 

 he knows that an organisation, however defective, cannot, in 

 itself, constitute moral demerit. Similarly, we, the observers^ 

 despise, avoid, or hate a coward ; but we can clearly under- 

 stand that a coward may be a more virtuous man than 

 another who abounds m animal courage. 



The better still to show how completely distinct are the 

 conceptions 'enduring or strong instincts' and 'virtuous- 

 desires ' on the one hand, and ' transient or weak impulses ' 

 and ' vicious inclinations ' on the other, let us substitute in 

 the following passage for the words which Mr. Darwin, on 

 his own principles, illegitimately introduces others which 

 accord with those principles, and we shall see how such 

 substitution eluninates every element of morahty from the 

 passage : — 



' Looking to future generations, there is no cause to fear 

 that the social instincts will grow weaker, and we may ex- 

 pect that enduring [virtuous] habits will grow stronger,, 

 becoming perhaps fixed by inheritance. In this case the 

 struggle between our stronger [higher] and weaker [lower] 

 impulses will be less severe, and the strong [virtue] will be 

 triumphant ' (vol. i. p. 104). 



As to past generations, Mr. Darwin tells us (vol. i. p. 166) 

 that at all times throughout the world, tribes have supplanted 

 other tribes; and as social acts are an element in their 

 success, sociality must have been intensified, and this because 

 ' an increase in the number of well-endowed men will cer- 



1 As before observed. See ante, vol. i. p. 464. 



