CHAPTER III 



THE EVOLUTION OF MOKAL CODES 



The Problem of the Moral Nature 



No phase of human evolution has developed so 

 much dispute and uncertainty as the problem of the 

 moral nature. The reasons for this are clear. 1. 

 Here is the most distinctive characteristic of man. 

 It is his moral rather than his intellectual nature, as 

 we shall later see, that is the foundation of his civil- 

 ization. 2. The moral sense is the one attribute 

 which is most closely allied to the religious notions 

 that we hold so dear, and it has frequently been 

 assumed that the acceptance of an evolution of the 

 moral sense would undermine the grounds of reli- 

 gious belief. For this reason many have held tena- 

 ciously to the belief that the moral sense was God- 

 given, without appreciating that it would be just as 

 truly God-given if it came to man by a slow process 

 of development as if it came by a single creative fiat. 

 3. The origin of the moral sense has proved the most 

 difficult problem for the evolutionist to solve. There 

 may be found among animals rudiments of most of 

 the common mental attributes of man, and hence the 

 problem of their development into the grade of hu- 

 man intelligence is a comparatively easy one. But 

 animals do not possess a moral sense. No one claims 

 that animals recognize right and wrong. Moreover, 

 it is difficult to discover in the lower orders of nature 

 anything that can be looked upon as offering ele- 

 ments that might have developed into human con- 



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