74 SOCIAL HEREDITY AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



of the lower and primitive races, combined witli the 

 knowledge of early ethical standards as disclosed 

 by historical records, together with a study of the 

 development of the moral nature in the child, give 

 data for a legitimate conclusion as to the origin of 

 this side of human nature, and for concluding that, at 

 least so far as concerns moral codes, and possibly 

 also as concerns the moral sense itself, the ethical 

 nature of man is mostly acquired, and thus trans- 

 mitted by social heredity rather than by organic 

 heredity. But while this is true, we have to recognize 

 that even those theories of the origin of the moral 

 nature which attribute it largely to social heredity 

 regard it as developed from two basal instincts, 

 which, like other instincts, are matters of organic 

 inheritance. These two instincts are (1) the struggle 

 for the life of the species, and (2) the social instincts. 



Stexjggle for the Life of the Species 



The development of the moral nature is dependent, 

 first, upon a phase in the life of animals that has only 

 recently been fully appreciated. Influenced by Dar- 

 win, science has become impressed with the notion 

 of the struggle for existence, and as animals in 

 nature have been studied the most patent fact has 

 been that each animal and plant is in severe competi- 

 tion for its own existence. Natural selection has 

 been studied chiefly as affecting the individual in 

 competition with others for his own life. This is a 

 most obvious conclusion. 



But in the last few years emphasis has been placed 

 upon the fact that, in addition to this struggle for the 

 life of the individual, there is a more fundamental 

 struggle for the continuation of the species. Indeed. 



