106 SOCIAL HEREDITY AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



self." Of course he does not think of these indi- 

 viduals as patterns to be imitated ; but in the life of 

 a child this is certainly the method of the develop- 

 ment of the conscience, for conscience is that feeling 

 within, which tells him to do as his model would under 

 like circumstances, whether that model be his mother, 

 his teacher, his inspired writer, or his God. 



It is, of course, manifest that in time the idea of 

 right and wrong comes to be applied to the different 

 tyioes of action. The method by which this new 

 thought arises seems to be fairly simple. As the 

 child matures he inevitably comes to recognize cer- 

 tain lines of action toward which he is impelled by 

 the various influences which are at work forming 

 his mind, and another set of activities which these 

 same influences forbid him to perform. In other 

 words, he comes to feel that there are some things 

 which are to be done and others that are not to be 

 done. He is then taught by parents or others that 

 it is right to do the one and ivrong to 'do the other. 

 These are at first only words, of course, and are 

 applied simply to the lines of action which he has 

 been taught to follow or to shun. He certainly does 

 not at first recognize in them any of the meaning that 

 he subsequently puts into them. To the very young 

 it may be thought just as wrong to dress unfashion- 

 ably or to soil one's clothing as it is to tell a lie, since 

 both actions bring a reprimand. But his teaching 

 gives him a more and more definite thought of a 

 right that should be done and a wrong that should 

 be avoided; and from the time this idea is firmly 

 fixed the further development of the moral nature 

 consists in the refining of the conception and the 

 classification of actions in one or the other of the 



