176 ETHICAL ASPECTS OP EVOLUTION 



origin of obedience is not to be found in the needs created 

 by the state of war, which has been regarded as a universal 

 characteristic of savage life. 1 The savages of Central 

 Australia, among whom combination for warlike enter- 

 prizes is hardly known, still recognize chiefs or headsmen 

 for other purposes, and submit to their judgements in 

 a degree proportionate to their strength of character or 

 of intellect ; and in this submission we discover the rudi 

 mentary principle from which obedience is derived. It 

 is not fear, or indolence, or affection, or any form of self- 

 love, but the instinctive submission of the weaker will 

 to the stronger, which is common to every race in which 

 the will of one individual is weaker or stronger than that 

 of another. The direction which this instinct takes, the 

 forms which it assumes, and its relative importance and 

 strength when compared with other impulses, are no doubt 

 influenced by the peculiar social requirements of the human 

 race in general, and of each of the groups into which that 

 race is broken up. But the mere fact that the instinct 

 of obedience is preserved, developed, directed, and kept 

 within bounds by the individual and social requirements 

 of mankind, does not distinguish the duty to obey as 

 * factitious or * artificial . 



An ethical appreciation of this form of impulse may start 

 with an inquiry as to the other forms of impulse to which 

 it most frequently stands in relation either of conflict or 

 of harmony. Most prominent among the first are the 

 three degrees of self-assertion ; pride, vanity, and perver 

 sity. 



What distinguishes pride from the other two is its disre 

 gard for the opinion of others. A proud man is essentially 

 solitary. He will not care to institute a comparison between 

 himself and others, especially in matters for which there 

 may be room for a difference of opinion. Rank, good 

 birth, and power which is above dispute are more likely 

 to lend themselves in support of pride than any other kind 



1 Gradually, as, by habitual war, chieftainship is established. 

 H. Spencer, Data, p. 115. 



