THE EVOLUTION OF THE MORAL SENSE 111 



that right is something wholly superior to custom, 

 law, and, indeed, to any human standard"? 



The answer to this question would seem to be as 

 follows : There is no such thing as race conscience in 

 any proper sense, only a conscience in each individ- 

 ual. The race has never developed a moral sense, 

 but each individual has developed his own, since he 

 is born without it and shows none in his early years. 

 Hence the question of the origin of the race con- 

 science is only the question already discussed of the 

 origin of individual conscience. The children of the 

 earliest races which formed families, just as the chil- 

 dren of to-day, must have found themselves subject to 

 criticism from their superiors, and must have early 

 learned that there was some standard of living which 

 they did not reach. For some things they were 

 blamed, for others commended, and they inevitably 

 perceived that there was one standard to be con- 

 demned and another to be commended. What this 

 standard was they doubtless did not know nor even 

 consciously recognize its existence. But since the 

 father or the chieftain or the family patriarch was 

 the one to receive obedience, they came to be the 

 embodiment of the standard to be followed. 



How long it was before any further steps were 

 taken in the development of the moral sense we have 

 no conception. But in time the higher stages of con- 

 science began to be possible as the social condi- 

 tions advanced and became more complicated. When 

 man isolated this standard even unconsciously 

 from any actual person, and made it an ideal to be 

 imitated, the step forward toward what we now call 

 conscience was a great one. This ideal would then 

 embody all the actions which his growing mind urged 



