Darwin s Ethical Theory. 173 



to regret his conduct ? Here is a profound differ 

 ence between man and the lower animals; but 

 Darwin finds an explanation of it in the immense 

 ly superior development of man s mental faculties. ] 

 Reflection is an unavoidable incident of an in 

 telligence so highly developed as man s. Images 

 of all past actions and motives would pass inces 

 santly through the mind of the earliest human 

 being. With him, as with other social animals, 

 the sympathetic instincts would be ever present 

 and persistent ; while the instincts of self-preser 

 vation and hunger, or the impulse to vengeance, 

 are in their nature transitory, or scarcely ever 

 present to consciousness. Accordingly, when an 

 impulse to vengeance has mastered man s social 

 instincts, he reflects and compares the now fad 

 ing idea of this impulse with the ever present 

 social instincts. On one side he finds the gratifi 

 cation of vengeance at the cost of his compan 

 ions ; on the other, the outgoings of his own ever 

 present spontaneous sympathy, re-enforced with 

 the knowledge that his comrades consider it 

 praiseworthy ; and the consequence is that that 

 feeling of dissatisfaction which invariably re 

 sults from any unsatisfied instinct now arises, 

 as soon as it is perceived that the enduring and 

 always present social instinct has yielded to 



