202 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. [GW. 



CHAPTER IX. 



EVOLUTION AND ETHICS. 



The Origin of Morals an Inquiry not foreign to the Subject of this Book. Modern 

 Utilitarian View as to that Origin. Mr. Darwin's Speculation as to the Origin 

 of the Abhorrence of Incest. Cause assigned by him insufficient. Care of the 

 Aged and Infirm opposed by "Natural Selection;" also Self-abnegation and 

 Asceticism. Distinctness of the Ideas "Bight" and " Useful." Mr. John Stuart 

 Mill. Insufficiency of "Natural Selection" to account for the Origin of the 

 Distinction between Duty and Profit. Distinction of Moral Acts into "Mate- 

 rial" and "Formal." No Ground for believing that Formal Morality exists in 

 Brutes. Evidence that it does exist in Savages. Facility with which Savages 

 may be misunderstood. Objections as to Diversity of Customs. Mr. Button's 

 Review of Mr. Herbert Spencer. Anticipatory Character of Morals. Sir John 

 Lubbock's Explanation. Summary and Conclusion. 



ANY inquiry into the origin of the notion of " morality " 

 the conception of " right " may, perhaps, be considered 

 as somewhat remote from the question of the Genesis of 

 Species ; the more so, since Mr. Darwin, at one time, dis- 

 claimed any pretension to explain the origin of the higher 

 psychical phenomena of man. His disciples, however, were 

 never equally reticent, and indeed he himself is now not 

 only about to produce a work on man (in which this question 

 must be considered), but he has distinctly announced the 

 extension of the application of his theory to the very phe- 

 nomena in question. He says : * " In the distant future I 

 see open fields for far more important researches. Psy- 

 chology will be based on a new foundation, that of the 

 necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity 

 by gradation. Light will be thrown on the origin of man 



1 " Origin of Sp6cies," 5th edit., 1869, p. 577. 



