THE EVOLUTION OF THE MORAL SENSE 125 



to sacrifice self-interest, and which demands greater 

 sacrifices today than ever before in the history of 

 the world. This ethkaLnatUEg has become the most 

 important characteristic which separates man from 

 animals, and this it is that constitutes the founda- 

 tions of civilization. That this last statement is 

 well founded now remains to be shown, and this 

 must be done by a study of the evolution of civiliza- 

 tion, to which we now turn our attention. We shall 

 try to trace the steps by which the social organism, 

 or civilization, has been developed to its present 

 condition. In this attempt we shall first review the 

 successive steps by which this evolution has taken 

 place, and after thus obtaining a picture of the 

 events we shall try to discover the fundamental 

 principles and laws that have been concerned in 

 bringing it about. 



