172 Darwinism and Other Essays, 



truths now known were known then, he merely 

 asserts that what was known then was known 

 then ; a statement which probably few will be 

 hardy enough to dispute, but which unfortunately 

 leaves the argument just where it was before. 



But supposing we accept this narrow definition 

 of morality, what will become of our author's 

 statement, even then? He himself quotes, from 

 several authors, passages which show that there 

 was a time when some nations did not acknowl- 

 edge the moral law forbidding murder. " Among 

 some Macedonian tribes, the man who had never 

 slain an enemy was marked by a degrading 

 badge." 1 And at the present day, among bar- 

 barous tribes, as the Dyaks of Borneo, " a man 

 cannot marry until he has procured a human 

 head ; and he that has several may be distin- 

 guished by his proud and lofty bearing, for it 

 constitutes his patent of nobility." 2 By calling 

 up these facts, Mr. Buckle destroys his own 

 statement that " moral truths " receive no addi- 

 tions. 



As for his other assertion, that " moral 

 truths" receive fewer additions than " intellectual 



1 Grote's History of Greece, vol. xi. p. 397, quoted in Buckle, vol 

 1 p. 176, note 29. 

 3 Journal of Asiatic Society, vol. iv. p. 181. 



