Chap. III.] MORAL SENSE. 97 



to be one of the latest moral acquisitions. It is apparently 

 unfelt by savages, except toward their pets. How little 

 the old Romans knew of it is shown by their abhorrent 

 gladiatorial exhibitions. The very idea of humanity, as 

 far as I could observe, was new to most of the Gauchos of 

 the Pampas. This virtue, one of the noblest with which 

 man is endowed, seems to arise incidentally from our sym- 

 pathies becoming more tender and more widely diffused, 

 until they are extended to all sentient beings. As soon as 

 this virtue is honored and practised by some few men, it 

 spreads through instruction and example to the young, 

 and eventually through public opinion. 



The highest stage in moral culture at which we can 

 arrive, is when we recognize that we ought to control our 

 thoughts, and " not even in inmost thought to think again 

 the sins that made the past so pleasant to us." ^* What- 

 ever makes any bad action familiar to the mind, renders 

 its performance by so much the easier. As Marcus Aure- 

 lius long ago said, " Such as are thy habitual thoughts, 

 such also will be the character of thy mind ; for the soul 

 is dyed by the thoughts." " 



Our great philosopher, Herbert Spencer, has recently 

 explained his views on the moral sense. He says : " " I 

 believe that the experiences of utility organized and con- 

 solidated through all past generations of the human race, 

 have been producing corresponding modifications, which, 

 by continued transmission and accumulation, have become 

 in us certain faculties of moral intviition — certain emotions 

 responding to right and wrong conduct, which have no 

 apparent basis in the individual experiences of utility." 



24 Tennyson, ' Idylls of the King,' p. 244. 



25 ' The Thoughts of the Emperor M. Aurelius Antonmus,' Eng. trans- 

 lation, 2d edit., 1869, p. 112. Marcus Aurelius was born a. d. 121. 



25 Letter to Mr. Mill in Bain's ' Mental and Moral Science,' 1S68, p 

 722. 





