FURTHER EVOLUTION OF SYMPATHY. 29 



the authority of these highest principles of conduct. And 

 now we may see why there arises a belief in the special 

 sacredness of these highest principles, and a sense of the 

 supreme authority of the altruistic sentiments answering 

 to them. Many of the actions which, in early social 

 states, received the religious sanction and gained public 

 approbation, had the drawback that such sympathies as 

 existed were outraged, and there was hence an imperfect 

 satisfaction. &quot;Whereas these altruistic actions, while simi 

 larly having the religious sanction and gaining public 

 approbation, bring a sympathetic consciousness of pleas 

 ure given or of pain prevented ; and beyond this, bring 

 a sympathetic consciousness of human welfare at large, as 

 being furthered by making altruistic actions habitual. 

 Both this special and this general sympathetic conscious 

 ness become stronger and wider in proportion as the 

 power of mental representation increases, and the imagi 

 nation of consequences, immediate and remote, grows 

 more vivid and comprehensive. Until at length these 

 altruistic sentiments begin to call in question the au 

 thority of those ego-altruistic sentiments which once ruled 

 unchallenged. They prompt resistance to laws that do 

 not fulfil the conception of justice, encourage men to 

 brave the frowns of their fellows by pursuing a course at 

 variance with customs that are perceived to be socially 

 injurious, and even cause dissent from the current re 

 ligion ; either to the extent of disbelief in those alleged 

 divine attributes and acts not appioved by this supreme 

 moral arbiter, or to the extent of entire rejection of a 

 creed which ascribes such attributes and acts. 



Much that is required to make this hypothesis com 

 plete must stand over until, at the close of the second 

 volume of &quot; The Principles of Psychology,&quot; I have space 

 for a full exposition. What I have said will make it 



