THE EVOLUTION OF MORALITY 



thus produced him, and established herself in him, 

 she has achieved the crowning stage in her evolu- 

 tion by compelling him to deify her ; so that, in the 

 highest forms of his faith, and in proportion to 

 their height, we find Love in apotheosis, alike in 

 the Christ who is worshipped as Father of Love, 

 or in his followers, who deify him as love incar- 

 nate, or in the Pantheist, who at times can be- 

 lieve, with the Christian, that " underneath are the 

 everlasting Arms." 



In the foregoing it has been taken for granted 

 that all the forms of morality can be referred to 

 love, and that in describing the coming of love one 

 is describing the coming of morality in general. 

 At first sight it would certainly appear that this 

 assumption is gratuitous. Justice, for instance, is 

 an aspect of morality, but it is commonly con- 

 sidered that mercy and justice are antithetical. 

 If this be so, and if mercy be an aspect of love, 

 how can we regard justice as derived from altru- 

 ism ? But it is evident, on brief consideration, that 

 even such an abstract moral sentiment as the 

 idea of justice depends upon the assumption that 

 complete egoism as in stealing the property of 

 another is incompatible with the law of love. 

 Every act of immorality, regarded as such by the 

 evolutionary ethics, is so classified because it im- 

 pugns this law, and everything which impugns this 

 law is so classified. On this criterion, therefore, 

 it is an immoral act, for instance, for a painter to 

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