Conscience* and the Moral Sense. 721 



men upon each other in family and other circumscribe/! relations. These 

 qualities have been carefully preserved and augmented by natural selec- 

 tion. They are a part of our nature, inherited from the lower animals 

 with our physical form, but greatly enlarged by our own development. 

 It gives us as much uneasiness and unhappiness to thwart these faculties 

 as any others ; so that in the construction of moral and civil law these 

 sentiments have their weight and influence, and find their expression in 

 our public and private charities, our poor-houses, hospitals, asylums, &c. 



The civil law is the embodiment of the mutual concessions each man 

 has been compelled to make to the rest for the sake of the unmolested 

 pursuit of his own self-happiness. The moral law is the theory on 

 which the civil is founded, and from age to age it points out to men by 

 what new concessions, which they can make to each other or can compel 

 from each other, their stock of happiness can be increased in the long 

 run. Thus, the moral law founded in human selfishness, and wrought 

 out by human experience, becomes the highest and most refined expres- 

 sion of human self-interest. The moral code depends upon the fact 

 that men can accomplish their selfish purposes better by co-operation 

 and associated effort. This value of associated effort is appreciated by 

 other animals as well as b} r men. Beavers, muskrats, monkeys, wild 

 horses and cattle, wolves, buffaloes, and many others among the mam- 

 mals ; geese, ducks, pigeons, quails, martins, swallows, crows, turkeys, 

 cranes, penguins, and numerous others among the birds; bees, ants, 

 wasps, &c. , among the insects, and also most species of fishes, and sea 

 mammals, afford examples of race association for the purpose of mutual 

 protection and defense, or for concerted aggression and attack, or for 

 the construction and maintenance of public works for the common good. 



The original prime object and motive of animal association is the ac- 

 complishment of individual ends and aims, and it of course at first 

 takes no account of the society as such. The association among such 

 animals as wolves and primitive men, probably began by the weaker in- 

 dividuals attaching themselves to the stronger. A powerful individual 

 by his superior ability would be able to more than supply himself, and 

 the weaker would hang around and follow him, readj^ to appropriate 

 anything he might leave. From assisting at his banquets, stimulated 

 by his example and success, they would at length assist in his aggresr 

 sive enterprises, and put in a bite or a blow where they could. The so- 

 ciety thus formed has already a tacit and instinctive moral code. I 

 have never read that wolves, however hungry, will attack each other un- 

 less disabled, although if they did they would be no worse than savage 

 men, or even civilized ones, who have often been known to kill and eat a 

 fellow to escape starvation. The stronger in these primitive societies al- 

 low the weaker certain undisturbed rights, but fighting and working for 



