Darwin s Ethical Theory. 169 



gle for existence, became harmoniously united in 

 a common and a victorious defence. 



&quot;Any animal whatever,&quot; says Darwin, &quot;en 

 dowed with well-marked social instincts, the pa 

 rental and filial affections being here included, 

 would inevitably acquire a moral sense, or con 

 science, as soon as its intellectual powers had be 

 come as well, or nearly as well, developed as in 

 man.&quot; Not that any social animal, with the 

 same mental faculties, would acquire exactly the 

 same moral sense as ours; for the nature of 

 the moral sense is determined by the conditions 

 of the animal s life. If, for instance, men were 

 reared under precisely the same conditions as 

 hive-bees, they would possess a conscience which 

 required unmarried women, like the worker-bees, 

 to kill their brothers, and mothers to kill their 

 fertile daughters. 



Conscience, or the moral sense, being, according 

 to this theory, derived from sociability, it may 

 be worth while glancing at the operations of that 

 instinct in the lower animals. That animals are 

 social we may see in our horses, cattle, and sheep, 

 in rooks, jackdaws, and starlings, in creatures as 

 far asunder as ants and monkeys. The most 

 common mutual service of the higher animals is 

 to warn one another of danger. As danger-signal, 



