172 Grows into Moral Sense. 



life for primitive man as for his ape-like fore, 

 fathers. 



It is now in this abiding sympathetic impulse, 

 acquired through natural selection for the good of 

 the community, that we must seek the origin of 

 the moral sense, or conscience. Already in its 

 persistency over other impulses we may discern 

 a basis for the supremacy of the moral law. A 

 permanent and strong instinct in the presence of 

 an evanescent impulse awakens a feeling of obli 

 gation, which we express by saying that it ought 

 to be obeyed. &quot; A pointer dog, if able to reflect 

 on his past conduct, would say to himself, I 

 ought (as, indeed, we say of him) to have pointed 

 at that hare, and not have yielded to the passing 

 temptation of hunting it. &quot; But this preroga 

 tive of approving and disapproving is what con 

 stitutes man a moral being the sole moral ani 

 mal. It is, as it were, a voice lent by intelligence 

 to the dumb instincts and impulses to action that 

 struggle in the breast of every animal. Why, 

 then, is conscience more than a simple expression 

 of the motives at play ? If the instinct of self- 

 preservation or of vengeance has triumphed over 

 the social instinct, why does a man regret that he 

 followed the one natural impulse rather than the 

 other, and why does he further feel that he ought 



