CHAPTER Y. 



THE ETHICAL SPECULATIONS OF DARWIN. 



From our consideration of the logical bearings 

 of evolutionary science upon the fundamental 

 questions of morals we now pass to an examina 

 tion of the ethical speculations of Darwin. It 

 will be advisable to begin with an exposition of 

 his views, after which we shall have to inquire 

 into their validity, as well as determine their re 

 lation to evolutionary biology. And, for reasons 

 that will be evident as we proceed, the account 

 of the moral faculties must be supplemented by 

 an account of the intellectual faculties. 



Darwin himself confesses that the greatest ob 

 stacle to the acceptance of the hypothesis which 

 he had framed to account for the phenomena of 

 life lies in the high standard of man s intellectual 

 powers and moral disposition. And his endeavor 

 is to show that the mental faculties of man differ 

 only in degree, and not at all in kind, from those 

 of the lower animals ; and that man s moral at 

 tainments are, under evolution, the necessary cor- 

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