1 92 Contemporary Evohttion. 



own existence ; more than this, they have every appear- 

 ance of rejoicing in the doctrine of the bestiality of man, 

 in the belief that they have no sentiment or aspiration 

 which is not in root and essence the desire of food, or the 

 brutal appetite of sex, or the dread of brutes more power- 

 ful or more malignant than themselves. This phenomenon 

 is one of much interest, and very instructive. At first 

 sight it seems almost incredible that such bitter hostility 

 should exist. Yet, apart from religion, a certain explana- 

 tion presents itself in the trial to pride which arises from 

 the admission of free will, since it places the poorest 

 peasant on an absolute equality, as to morality, with the 

 most cultured and refined, since both are equally capable 

 of exercising rational, meritorious volition. If there is 

 such a thing as morality at all, it must necessarily be be- 

 yond comparison, as to value, with mental refinement, 

 culture, or intellectual capacity ; and it necessarily follows, 

 that a rude savage, with no implements but a few chip- 

 ped flints, may be above all comparison in nobility with 

 the greatest of our agnostic philosophers, " while a poor, 

 paralysed old woman, sitting in a chimney-corner, may, 

 by her good aspirations and volitions, be repeatedly per- 

 forming mental acts, compared with which the discovery 

 by Newton of the law of gravitation is as nothing."* 

 Moreover, in free will and morality we have that which 



* " Lessons from Nature," p. 380. 



