HISTORY OF MORALS iii 



It is Carlyle who tells us that the history of 

 mankind is at bottom the history of its greatest 

 men. If we had such histories accurately written, 

 and knew how to read them judiciously, it might 

 serve ; but we have them onl};- in part, or written 

 in such form as to serve only as numerous 

 quarries, in which the coming historian may hew 

 out materials for his work — a final work on the 

 progress of the morals of mankind. If there 

 is as yet no sign of such a work — and there is 

 none — we still do know enough to enable us to 

 construct a certain number of scenes and pictures 

 which may serve to show how mankind has made 

 the advance from barbarism to civilisation, along 

 one of the many lines of progress. Here, in this 

 particular case, two or three such sketches will 

 suffice. 



Savages, long ago, like those of to-day, had 

 their simple moral codes. Certain acts were 

 held by them disgraceful, other acts highly 

 meritorious. We know, from unimpeachable 

 evidence, that there are now savages who would 

 not thievishly touch, nor allow others to touch, 

 goods committed to their charge ; and these same 

 men will set forth, and be honoured for doing 

 so, to find a victim in some neighbouring, not 

 unfriendly, tribe, and fight with him for no 

 reason but to cut off and bring back his head 

 in triumph. And what, as a rule, has been the 

 behaviour of such savages, through all time, to 

 those they held as immeasurably inferior to them- 

 selves — their women ? Most brutal. From the 

 beginning of things, so far as any tradition exists, 



