THE EVOLUTION OF THE MORAL SENSE 101 



blindly, just as in our communities we follow fashion 

 in regard to our clothing; and it is possible that such 

 adherence to custom on the part of the savage in- 

 volves no more of moral sense than does our own 

 habit of wearing clothes according to the prevailing 

 fashion. All that we can affirm positively is that 

 among the low races of men there is some sort of feel- 

 ing that imperatively commands the individual to 

 adhere to certain customs, and the customs thus 

 enforced seem calculated to produce the most har- 

 monious results. Families in which this adherence 

 to customs does not occur could make no headway 

 against the unity of action of the harmonious family, 

 and natural selection would soon leave only those in 

 which such impulses have played an important part. 

 Although the original content of this feeling may not 

 be certain, we must consider in succession various 

 impulses which have doubtless contributed to it, no- 

 ticing how the lower emotions eventually grade into 

 the higher ones. Fear and pride we have noticed, 

 and we come now to emotions more distinctly human. 

 Sympathy. — Although it does not by any means con- 

 stitute a satisfactory foundation for ethics, sym- 

 pathy has played a prominent part in the growth of 

 the moral nature of man. Whereas animals, as a 

 rule, respond only to the pleasure of the moment and 

 occasionally to remembered or anticipated pleasures 

 and pains, man has learned to respond to the pleas- 

 ures and pain of others. He has acquired the habit 

 of acting in such a manner as will give pleasure and 

 happiness to others even at a sacrifice to self, and he 

 has learned more and more to repress actions that 

 give unhappiness to others. This feeling of sym- 

 pathy was doubtless at first confined to the members 



