96 Appendix III 



at the heroism of men of our own race ; that 

 we have a pride in the success and a firm 

 belief in the future of our nation. We have, 

 in short, an instinct which impels us to work 

 for the preservation and the development of 

 the society of which we are members. This 

 instinct is precisely like that which, in other 

 types of life, guides the conduct of the herd in 

 uniting for common defence. The tendency 

 to social conduct is a product of evolution 

 resulting from the survival of the group in 

 which this instinct was most strongly de- 

 veloped and most rationally guided. All of 

 us probably pass through a period of meta- 

 physical measles, but having done so, we 

 drop the categorical imperative and face the 

 historical evolution of morality. If we trace 

 that evolution from the folk-lore and custom 

 of the most barbarous groups up to the 

 highest stages of civilization, we recognise 

 no permanent code of moral action apart from 

 our social relations. Moral conduct is social 

 conduct, and immoral conduct anti-social con- 

 duct. And what is social and what is anti- 

 social depends upon the condition of the 

 society with which we are dealing. From this 

 aspect legal institutions, industrial systems, 

 and religious customs, which are moral to 

 one state of society, may be immoral to 

 another state of society, or, indeed, to the 

 same society at a different period. 



By moral conduct, then, we mean that 



