18 Evolution and Religion 



fact that he appears to have put an effectual, lasting 

 quietus upon two schools of thought noisily prevalent 

 before his time: those who assumed that the founda- 

 tion of all morality lay in a form of selfishness, and 

 those who assumed that it lay in what would appar- 

 ently be only a refinement of the same idea, the prin- 

 ciple of greatest happiness. Since Darwin's time, 

 particularly as reinforced by Spencer's writings, the 

 creed of self seems to have lain by the roadside of 

 human thought, a deflated wind-bag, punctured by 

 the keen lance of this knightly yet modest champion 

 of truth. As he puts it himself, if we accept his evo- 

 lutionary theory that " the moral sense is fundamentally 

 identical with the social instincts, the reproach of laying 

 the foundation of the most noble part of our nature in 

 the base principle of selfishness is removed; unless 

 indeed the satisfaction which every animal feels when 

 it follows its proper instincts, and the dissatisfaction 

 felt when prevented, be called selfish. When a man 

 risks his life to save that of a fellow creature, it seems 

 more appropriate to say that he acts for the general 

 good or welfare rather than for the general happiness 

 of mankind. No doubt the welfare and the happiness 

 of the individual usually coincide; and a contented, 

 happy tribe will flourish better than one that is dis- 

 contented and unhappy. At an early period in the 

 history of man, the expressed wishes of the community 

 will have naturally influenced to a large extent the con- 

 duct of each member; and as all wish for happiness, 

 the "greatest happiness principle" will have become 



