56 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS. n 



Even purely intellectual progress brings about 

 its revenges. Problems settled in a rough and 

 ready way by rude men, absorbed in action, de- 

 mand renewed attention and show themselves to 

 be still unread riddles when men have time to 

 think. The beneficent demon, doubt, whose name 

 is Legion and who dwells amongst the tombs of 

 old faiths, enters into mankind and thenceforth 

 refuses to be cast out. Sacred customs, venerable 

 dooms of ancestral wisdom, hallowed by tradition 

 and professing to hold good for all time, are put 

 to the question. Cultured reflection asks for their 

 credentials; judges them by its own standards; 

 finally, gathers those of which it approves into 

 ethical systems, in which the reasoning is rarely 

 muCtTmore than a decent pretext for the adoption 

 of foregone conclusions. 



One of the oldest and most important elements 

 in such systems is the conception of rnfijjnp. So- 

 ciety is impossible unless those who are associated 

 agree to observe certain rules of conduct towards 

 one another; its stability depends on the steadi- 

 ness with which they abide by that agreement; 

 and, so far as they waver, that mutual trust 

 which is the bond of society is weakened or de- 

 stroyed. Wolves could not hunt in packs except 

 for the real, though unexpressed, understanding 

 that they should not attack one another during 

 the chase. The most rudimentary polity is a 

 pack of men living under the like tacit, or ex- 



